Although social activists and concerned economists demanded at least Rs. 1 lakh crore to be earmarked in favour of the Mahatma Gandhi Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS), the Finance Minister in her budget speech on 1st February allocated only Rs.61,500 crore to it for the financial year 2020-21. As compared to the fund spent on MGNREGA in 2019-20 (i.e. revised estimate of Rs.71,001.81 crore), the amount set aside for the...
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The book ‘Eastern ghats —Environment Outlook’ focuses on the need to give the region its due -SB Vijaya Mary
-The Hindu The Eastern Ghats, despite its rich bio-diversity, is often overlooked. Here’s a movement that aims to conserve it Despite being older than the Himalayas and the Western Ghats, the Eastern Ghats, an ancient discontinuous low mountain range that spreads along the East coast of the Indian Peninsula, never got its due. The geographical extent of the Eastern Ghats is about 75,000 kilometres, spread over the states of Odisha (25 %),...
More »Joblessness and opportunity in Tamil Nadu -Vikas Kumar, PG Babu and Poonam Singh
-The Hindu The longer-term decline in the labour pARTicipation rate can be attributed to a host of factors The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted economies across the world and presented policymakers with the unenviable task of sustaining employment amidst lockdowns. However, the academic and political debates in India on unemployment, which is widely attributed to jobless growth amidst stagnation in the agricultural and manufacturing sectors, predate the pandemic. It will be useful to...
More »Green-lighting ecological decimation amidst a pandemic -Chitrangada Choudhury and Aniket Aga
-The Hindu Projects in critical forest habitats are being considered or have been given clearance by the Environment Ministry Few countries are witnessing such severe direct and indirect devastation on account of the COVID-19 pandemic as India. Yet, there is little attention on the roots of our vulnerability. Our challenge is hardly limited to escaping a virus with lockdowns and masks in the short term, and vaccination in the long term. It would...
More »Diamond workers begin exodus from Surat
-PTI Nearly 1,500 families are heading to their home towns every day Left with no source of income, workers in Surat’s diamond industry are leaving the city in large numbers. After being forced to down shutters in March-end owing to the COVID-19 outbreak, business resumed in the second week of June. However, over 600 workers and their families have tested positive for COVID-19, prompting the Surat Municipal Corporation to order the closure of...
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