PATIALA/SANGRUR: Everyone agrees that theNREGA is causing a shortage of agricultural labour. Everyone, that is, except the workers themselves. For the last two years, the "success" of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (commonly referred to as NREGA) in reducing the number of men migrating out of India's poorest states has become something of a truism. In Punjab, this has resulted in dozens of news articles about the shortage...

-The Times of India Indian government is very actively working towards e-governance and the citizens with access to internet-enabled computers and smartphones too look forward to an easier life. After all, who doesn't like to use the online option provided by almost all the organizations and save time by avoiding the long queues at different utilities and departments.  However, the biggest irony is that many government or PSU websites that offer online...

Soon, differently abled people can book rail tickets online at concessional fares that they are entitled to. At present, differently abled people have to go to railway reservation counters to book tickets if they want to avail the fare concession given by railways. "The railway board is ready with the plan to facilitate online ticket booking for its special passengers," a senior official said. The plan is to issue identity cards with...

A gold medal fetches Rs 51,000 in Haryana and Rs 7,000 in Delhi. In Jharkhand and Bihar, it does not even fetch a return train ticket. Sandeep Oraon of Sangrampur, Ranchi, and Raj Kumar Sharma of Barharia, Siwan, struck gold for Delhi in the Para Athletics National Championship 2012 in Bangalore, which concluded on March 28, but said they would have felt more honoured to represent their home states had the...

Free travel is becoming an acceptable norm in former railway minister Mamata Banerjee’s signature train — the non-stop Duronto. Launched in 2010 during Banerjee’s tenure, the Duronto was the only Indian train that did not permit free rail travel. However, things changed after Banerjee quit as the railway minister to take charge as the CM of West Bengal in May 2011. At first, MPs inched their way into the Duronto on free...