-Live Mint The focus on implementation constraints is welcome; weak implementation has long been the Achilles heel of MGNREGS The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) faces an uncertain future. Statements from the government suggest that the scheme is set for a major revamp with infrastructure creation as its core objective. There are also rumours of a possible scaledown to backward regions. For the moment, however, the only concrete proposal...

-The Hindu   With water becoming an important cost, and with climate change and soil degradation, the System of Rice Intensification offers disadvantaged farming households better opportunities A truant monsoon is in the offing, with El Niño weather patterns expected to bring about drier conditions. India has the world's largest area devoted to rice, a very water-intensive crop. This is a good time for giving impetus to "more crop per drop" practices, now...

Two political leaders from rival camps, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and former Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh, have brought the spotlight on rural sanitation and have rooted for defecation-free India by investing in toilet construction on war footing. But a recent study by a group of eminent development economists led by Prof. Dean Spears-a visiting economist at the Delhi School of Economics - has concluded that when it comes to...

-Live Mint Sanitation in India has come a long way from being no one's priority to a politically salient issue Our politicians are finally talking toilets. From former minister Jairam Ramesh's infamous statement that India needed more toilets than temples to becoming a campaign issue in the recent elections, sanitation in India has come a long way from being no one's priority to a politically salient issue. On becoming Prime Minister, Narendra...

-The Indian Express Despite the bureaucratic mindset, there are also tremendous positive effects. As speculation mounts by the day that the Modi government is thinking of winding up the Planning Commission, this is an opportune moment to reflect on the relevance of the institution in the context of a rapidly changing Indian economy and society. One way of classifying institutions is in terms of the balance between their potential positive power (PPP) and...