Air quality in North India in general and Delhi National Capital Region (Delhi NCR) in particular plunged to its lowest point in recent years during October-November thanks to a variety of factors. Through media reports one comes to know that stubble burning (also called paddy straw burning/ crop residue burning) is chiefly responsible for the public health crisis in India's capital and its nearby regions. Data accessed from the website...

-Financial Express The government’s proposed Unnati scheme, if it works as planned, offers MgNREGA beneficiaries a ticket out of the programme, and, in the long run, out of poverty. It has been clear for a long time that MgNREGA is barely the poverty reduction tool it is often made out to be; at Rs 204 per day per person, the average wage rate across the country is too low to sustain a...

-Newsclick.in Even if the wage rates under MgNREGA are doubled and if jobs are provided for at least 100 days in a year as per the law, the extra expenditure would not exceed 1% of GDP. The growth rate is slowing down in India neither because of lower productivity of the labourers or that of the land, nor because of shortage of labour or productive capacity, but because of the lack of...

-The Indian Express Data that suggests young workers are increasingly turning to the scheme is a sign that must worry policymakers After the contraction of factory output by 1.1 per cent in August compared to the past year, the sharp decline in commercial credit in the year till September and other such gloomy indicators, come fresh signs of the deepening slowdown. As this paper has reported, the proportion of young workers, those...

-The Indian Express Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, 2005, provides unskilled manual work for 100 days to eligible rural households. Facing criticism over rising unemployment and rural distress, the Union government plans to launch a new project under which a stipend of up to Rs 20,000 will be given to Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MgNREGA) labourers who undergo training in skills such as masonry or carpentry. The...