By stubbornly overruling the National Advisory Council, the government risks defeating its purpose as a body that speaks for the poor and the disadvantaged. HAS the Manmohan Singh government begun to regard the National Advisory Council (NAC) as an adversary who should be undermined? Going by their exchanges on key issues such as food security, wages under the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA), and the implementation of the Scheduled Tribes...

The Midday Meal (MDM) scheme catering to 12 crore children — all set to increase manifold with the implementation of the Right to Education Act — is likely to get a paltry increase of Rs 6 crore in the 2011-12 general budget. Last year, Rs 10,380 crore was allocated for the scheme. Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) may see a big jump in allocation — Rs 21,000 crore from Rs 15,000 crore...

Food inflation moved up to 11.49 per cent for the week ended February 12 as compared with 11.05 per cent for the previous week even as prices of certain items fell marginally. Despite the increase, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today said while inflation has been a concern for the last 18 months, it will come down to 7 per cent by the end of the current fiscal. According to the Wholesale...

The Government has included small and marginal farmers under Mahatma Gandhi NREGA by an amendment made in para 1(iv) of the list of permissible activities provided in Schedule-I of the Act. The amendment made is as follows: “Provision of irrigation facility, horticulture plantation and land development facilities to land owned by households belonging to the Schedule Castes and Schedule Tribes or below poverty line families or to beneficiaries of land...

The farmers in the state, who had lost their crops to the recent rain and hailstorm, may not get any compensation from the present weather-based insurance scheme in the state as hailstorm is not covered under the policy. According to sources, the state has adopted the weather-based insurance in which the compensation is calculated on the basic parameters of temperature, rainfall and moisture levels. These parameters could be measured by...