Although social activists and concerned economists demanded at least Rs. 1 lakh crore to be earmarked in favour of the Mahatma Gandhi Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS), the Finance Minister in her budget speech on 1st February allocated only Rs.61,500 crore to it for the financial year 2020-21. As compared to the fund spent on MGNREGA in 2019-20 (i.e. revised estimate of Rs.71,001.81 crore), the amount set aside for the...
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Civil society presses for an increase in budgetary allocation for MGNREGA in FY 2020-21
-Press release by NREGA Sangharsh Morcha dated 27 January, 2020 As the Indian economy continues to languish, the government ignores the advice given by several noted economists, including that of the most recent Nobel winner Abhijit Banerjee, to improve the functioning of the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA). The economy is facing blow after blow. India has the highest rates of unemployment in the past 45 years and food inflation...
More »More women is good economics -- economists -Shamika Ravi
-The Indian Express It is crucial for young girls to have female mentors because research shows that it encourages them to persevere ahead, despite difficulties. The person who convinced me to do a PhD in economics was Abhijit Banerjee of MIT, when I worked with him on one of the first randomised controlled trials in the field of economics in the late 1990s. During my PhD, I had the good fortune...
More »Govt set to bring in stipend to skill up MGNREGA workers -Harikishan Sharma
-The Indian Express Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, 2005, provides unskilled manual work for 100 days to eligible rural households. Facing criticism over rising unemployment and rural distress, the Union government plans to launch a new project under which a stipend of up to Rs 20,000 will be given to Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) labourers who undergo training in skills such as masonry or carpentry. The...
More »With low birth weight and child deaths, malnourishment remains a big challenge for Centre's ambitious POSHAN Plan -Sneha MoRDani
-News18.com A government study shows children are not eating in spite of adequate food availability, while experts too say 90 per cent of kids in India may not be hungry in terms of hunger but they are hungry in terms of nutrition. New Delhi: The central government’s ambitious POSHAN nutrition programme that focuses on the first 1,000 days of a newborn, including the nine-month pregnancy period, is staring at a major challenge:...
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