The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) is under pressure from several quarters. One such source of pressure is the rural rich whose concerns were recently voiced by Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar, when he raised the bogey of shortage of supply of farm workers because of the employment guarantee scheme. The fact is that the national average for workdays generated under the scheme is less than half of the...
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For rich or for poor? by Ashok Kotwal, Milind Murugkar and Bharat Ramaswami
'Food subsidy is a massive burden…if so much is spent on subsidies, what is left for development?' agriculture minister Sharad Pawar recently asked. It is a legitimate question that is on the minds of many but seldom gets asked for fear of appearing callous. Are we prematurely trying to be a welfare State? In the developed world, safety nets like food stamps are regarded as humanitarian obligations toward the poor....
More »Skepticism about HDRs by Bibek Debroy
This seems to be season for Human Development Reports (HDRs). UNDP's global HDR for 2011 has been published. In that, the headline grabbing number was that India is ranked 134th out of 186 countries. This ranking is based on HDI (human development index), a composite indicator with three sub-heads of health (life expectancy), education (literacy, gross enrollment ratio) and PPP per capita income. HDI ranges between 0 and 1 and...
More »MGNREGA mobile courts proposed for every district to fast-track conviction of erring officials
-The Economic Times The government's flagship rural employment programme may soon get a dedicated legal setup that would enable state governments to fast-track conviction of erring officials and panchayat heads implementing the scheme. The rural development ministry, which implements the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) through state departments and panchayats, is going to approach the Supreme Court to facilitate setting up of NREGA mobile courts in every district....
More »Bihar's economic growth causing labour shortages, higher wage bills in other parts of India by Ravi Teja Sharma
Bihar's recent economic growth has created a peculiar problem for real estate and infrastructure firms in other parts of the country. Migrant labour from the state constitutes around 50% of the unskilled workers employed in these sectors nationally, but increased government expenditure and private investment has caused rural migration from Bihar to fall by a third in recent years, resulting in labour shortages and 35-50% higher wage bills for real estate...
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