-The Business Standard Scheme faces pincer attack with a proposed higher proportion of expenditure on material, reducing the budget available to pay wages The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) faces a pincer attack under the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government, with parallel moves promising to shrink and mutate the nature of the scheme. Two of the moves have been revealed - a proposed higher proportion of expenditure on material,...

-The Hindu ‘The government has taken steps to destroy MGNREGA, an act that gives purchasing power to the rural poor, following prejudicial contentions of Bharatiya Janata Party leaders' It's no secret that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) does not like the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act. MGNREGA is perhaps the only law in the world which guarantees 100 days of wage employment a year to one member of a rural...

-The Hindu Business Line They drop out on account of cultural taboos and lack of follow up efforts by implementing agencies Despite opportunities and systematic community-driven handholding support from the Government and non-government bodies, women might still choose not to participate in the economic development process. Under the purview of the National Rural Livelihoods Mission, the world's largest poverty alleviation initiative, the Government and NGOs are targeting women from the poorest households...

-The Times of India LONDON: One in every four missed cases of tuberculosis (TB) globally is in India.The World Health Organisation has found that India tops the list of the world's missed TB cases. Almost 24% of the world's missed TB cases are from India, according to the Global TB Report 2014 released on Thursday. Ten countries accounted for 74% (2.4 million) of the estimated "missed" cases globally in 2013. The number of...

-The Hindu Business Line The number of people commuting between rural and urban areas and across geographies has risen dramatically In the last couple of decades, the number of people commuting between rural and urban areas on a daily basis has seen an explosive growth. This includes unskilled workers without a fixed place of work. According to the National Sample Survey Organisation, between 1993-94 and 2009-10, India saw a nearly fourfold increase (from...