-The Telegraph New Delhi: The UPA has hiked wages for national job scheme workers by 4-18 per cent in what appears to be a "parting gift" before the elections, but failed to match "arbitrary" revisions in minimum wages for agricultural labourers in 12 states, including Bengal. According to the new wage rates under the Mahatma Gandhi National Employment Guarantee Act, an MGNREGA labourer in Haryana will get Rs 236 a day, the...

-The Hindu Business Line The risk of water availability is a painful reality in south Asian agriculture including India. Any deviation from the monsoon causes problems for the farm community and poses threat to food security in the region. The variability in precipitation in India has actually increased in recent years. While comparing the variability of precipitation (given by standard deviation) between two phases, 1950-75 and 1976-2010, in two geographically dispersed districts...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: Keeping an eye on the 2014 Lok Sabha polls, the UPA government is considering to raise the workdays under its ambitious rural employment guarantee programme- MNREGA- from 100 to 150 days per year for forest dwellers and tribals. The Union Cabinet on Friday will consider the proposal for additional 50 days of employment to beneficiaries who have been granted land titles under The Scheduled Tribes and...

-The Hindu With the era of cheap, bountiful water having been replaced by increasing supply-and-quality constraints, many international investors are beginning to view water as the new oil There is a popular, tongue-in-cheek saying in America - attributed to the writer Mark Twain, who lived through the early phase of the California Water Wars - that "whiskey is for drinking and water is for fighting over." It highlights the consequences, even if...

-Outlook Union Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh today said there was a need to have parity of wage under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MNREGA) and the Minimum Wages Act. He said, in 14 states including Bihar, Jharkhand, West Bengal and Rajasthan, the wage under the rural job scheme was lower than the rate stipulated under the Minimum Wages Act. Speaking at an event to mark the 9th MNREGA Divas...