-The Times of India RANCHI: Labourers employed under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) would have hardly imagined that a day would come when they would be paid their wages, which were pending for more than two years now. As many as 91 labourers, who worked with the hope of supporting their families in the winter of 2010, were pleasantly surprised when they were paid not only their outstanding...

-The Business Standard Berhampur (Odisha): The expert team of the World Bank and Asian Development Bank (ADB) on Wednesday visited different areas of the cyclone Phailin-hit Ganjam district in Odisha to assess the damage caused due to the calamity. Divided in groups, the 14-member team along with the government officers visited different areas including slum pockets in Berhampur, fishermen and coastal villages in Ganjam, Chhatrapur and Rangeilunda blocks. The team led by the...

-The Indian Express Government must step up private sector involvement in agricultural research. Why Bharat Ratna awardee C.N.R. Rao called the acts of politicians "idiotic" is for him to elaborate. Perhaps he was referring to those advocating a ban on GM research in India. After all, Rao has vehemently urged a five-fold increase in funding for research and development in agriculture. That includes research on GM crops. On the food front, we have...

-The Business Standard Currently wages are linked to CPI AL Mahendra Dev who heads the new committee set up by the Rural Development Ministry to determine a new index for NREGA wages said that his job is not to engineer an increase in wages to suit political interests. My job is to find a suitable index for NREGA wages based on which a new baseline wage can be fixed for 2014,...

-The Business Standard Expenses such as employment guarantees and loan waivers are, in effect, subsidies that are classified differently in government accounts Over the last few years, the government announced many policy initiatives that purportedly help the weaker sections of our society. Schemes initiated under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) or the distribution of free and affordable food items under the National Food Security Act (NFSA) are examples...