-Down to Earth MGNREGA budget has declined in real terms over the years, despite claims of “highest ever” allocations In 2004, before India had any legal welfare entitlements for the informal sector, the National Rural Employment Guarantee Bill, was furiously debated in the Parliament and the media. The aim of this legislation was to address the crisis of under employment and unemployment in the rural economy and provide job opportunities through public works...

-The Telegraph New Delhi: Hundreds of journalists, activists and Opposition leaders converged at the Press Club of India and other venues in Lutyens' Delhi to speak out against the fear that has set in after senior journalist Gauri Lankesh's murder. Journalists condemned the hate campaign by Twitter trolls followed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and called for introspection within news agencies on the role the media play as the fourth pillar of...

-PTI New Delhi: The National Green Tribunal today came down heavily on the AAP government and the East Delhi Municipal Corporation (EDMC) over the Ghazipur landfill collapse in which two persons were killed, saying "nothing can be more humiliating than people being killed under garbage hill". The green panel issued notices to them while directing them to show cause why punitive action should not be taken against the Delhi government and criminal...

-The Telegraph Lucknow: Once bitten, the Yogi Adityanath administration acted fast when reports came of mass baby deaths at a hospital in Farrukhabad that had allegedly failed to administer oxygen to them, registering an FIR against two senior doctors. But the decision, on the basis of a probe by a "non-technical team" of civil servants, has prompted government doctors in the western district to strike work till Wednesday and threaten mass resignation...

-PTI NEW DELHI: The RBI has told a parliamentary panel that it has "no information" on how much black money has been extinguished as a result of demonetisation of Rs 500/1,000 notes or about unaccounted cash legitimised through exchange of currency post note ban. Stating that an estimated Rs 15.28 lakh crore in junked notes has come back "subject to future corrections based on verification process", the Reserve Bank also said it...