-Live Mint The scheme represents Rs.2.3 trillion spent on wasteful rural consumption This week marked the eighth anniversary of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government's key rural intervention, launched in 200 districts initially in February 2006. To the extent that such populist schemes helped raise wages without raising productivity. They have contributed more to inflation than to rural wealth. Worse, such schemes have...

-The Hindu Business school grad Ridhima Parvathaneni has put up a fight against numbers; numbers that indicate the alarming rate of malnutrition Despite shuttling between two states, Ridhima ensures that she wraps up work by Saturday night in order to let her hair down on Sunday. During the week, 22-year-old Satya Ridhima Parvathaneni is preoccupied with something unusual for a ‘work hard, party hard' youngster - a dream to reduce the number...

-Down to Earth Advisory issued by health officials highlights complaints regarding excessive charges and delayed service To make private hospitals and nursing homes in Delhi more patient-friendly, the Aam Adami Party (AAP) government has issued a strict advisory to these establishments. It instructs all such establishments to display charges, compulsorily give primary aid in cases of emergency, and asks them to prescribe generic medicines. In the advisory issued on February 5, health officials...

-The Hindu Three months after the Ministry of Rural Development launched ‘Kaam Maango Abhiyan', aimed at capturing demand effectively for its flagship scheme Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), the impact is beginning to become clear in several select districts of the country. The focus has been in six districts - Sitapur (Uttar Pradesh), Nashik (Maharashtra), Raichur (Karnataka), Katihar (Bihar), West Singhbum (Jharkhand) and Sundergarh (Odisha). The campaign covered...

-Kafila.org The Rights of Persons with Disabilities Bill was meant to be an enactment to codify India's obligations under the UNCRPD, which it ratified without reservations. There was a Committee set up in 2009 by the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, headed by Smt. Sudha Kaul, to draft a Bill to this effect. Like the UNCRPD says, the Committee included different people with disabilities - across disabilities - to draft...