Good sections of rural India don’t want NREGA any more, showing the government spending pattern on the scheme. Since a large percentage of the village labourers have moved to the cities, it makes far better sense to develop an unemployment dole for them. The subtext is an accounting arrangement that ensures that like NREGA, the government can keep on rolling out similar entitlement programmes like the proposed Food Security Act, but...
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‘Massive’ collections in Swiss black money probe by Ritu Sarin
Investigations say they have already mopped up a “massive amount” — running into “hundreds of crores” — as unpaid taxes from among the 700 numbered bank accounts held by Indians in HSBC Bank in Geneva in the ongoing scrutiny of what is considered a sprawling black money trail. In fact, Rs 40 crore has been recovered from Delhi-based account holders and Rs 60 crore from just one account holder in Chennai...
More »Black money: I-T department to probe 2,000 Indian accounts in Denmark, Finland by Pradeep Thakur
Even as the details given by France on Swiss bank accounts of Indians continue to cause ripples back home, Denmark and Finland have passed information about another 2,000 bank accounts to India, prompting the I-T department to launch an investigation. Sources said the I-T department's Directorate of Criminal Investigation (DCI) has been asked to probe these accounts. This is the third instance when foreign countries have shared details with Delhi about Indian...
More »‘Poverty is a human rights violation' by J Venkatesan
Prof. Thomas Pogge of Yale University on Tuesday strongly advocated the need for global institutional reforms to eradicate poverty, ensure human rights and secure global justice. He suggested establishing a Health Impact Fund (HIF) to complement the Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS). Prof. Pogge made these observations while delivering the First Dr. Arjun K. Sengupta Memorial Lecture at O. P. Jindal Global University in Sonepat near Delhi. Prof. Pogge said:...
More »Keeping track of wage payments for rural jobs scheme by Viswanath Pilla
The Smart Card Project is helping nearly 12.7 million poor people in Andhra Pradesh to get timely payment of wages It was conceived as a vehicle to promote financial inclusion by taking banking services to the unbanked poor, harnessing information and communications technology to ensure the benefits of public welfare programmes reach those they are intended for by plugging leakages. The Andhra Pradesh Smart Card Project, launched in 2007, is...
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