The Government has revised the wages for unskilled manual workers under the national rural employment guarantee scheme by indexing it to inflation, Rural Development Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh said today. He told the Rajya Sabha during Question Hour that the original National Rural Employment Guarantee Act provides for wages to be indexed to the consumer Price Index for agricultural labour. Against the Rs 100 per day wages originally approved, actual wages given are...
More »SEARCH RESULT
Food security: Thinking beyond export curbs by Ujal singh Bhatia
In an address to the Berlin Agriculture Ministers meeting last month, World Trade Organisation (WTO) Director General Pascal Lamy said export restrictions are a prime cause of recent surges in global food prices, and countries should find other ways of securing domestic supplies (“WTO chief: Alternatives to food export curbs needed”, Business Standard, January 23). Though export restrictions are an important contributor to rising food prices, they are by no...
More »Bihar farmers upset over slow pace of paddy procurement
Rice cultivators in Bihar are upset over the slow pace of procurement of their produce by the Centre, as well state agencies. Against a target of procuring 12 lakh tonnes of paddy this year, just about 3.5 lakh tonnes have been purchased so far, sources in state food and civil supplies department said. The procurement process will end by March 30. "I worked hard to grow paddy in my field. I pray to...
More »Beneficiaries may not get arrears by NJ Nair
Loss due to MGNREGS wage revision put at Rs.9.8 crore Revised rate below the rate fixed by the State Centre ignored State's plea for wage parity About 9.8 lakh beneficiaries of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) are unlikely to get arrears at the revised minimum wage rate of Rs.150 fixed by the Centre from January 1. The loss on this score has been estimated at about Rs.9.8 crore. A Union Rural...
More »Jairam Ramesh: Minister who gave new meaning to environmental governance by Urmi A Goswami
Then Clive Lloyd took over the West Indies cricket team, he knew he was no Garfield Sobers. Lloyd focused on infusing discipline and strategy sessions with the team. "Both exceptional leaders, Sobers led by example, while Lloyd built a team. I suspect Jairam Ramesh is more like Sobers," an environment analyst sums up his assessment of the minister. The Sobers analogy crops up, in explicit and implicit ways, in any...
More »