-The Hindu Business Line Facing criticism for rising prices, the Modi Government has blamed public expenditure on schemes such as MGNREGA (Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act) for fuelling food inflation. Curiously, the BJP wants the job scheme to continue, with the focus mainly on agriculture. According to the agenda note circulated for Friday's Conference of State Food Ministers with the Centre, food inflation is caused by both demand and supply...
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60% of NREGA work must be agricultural -Subodh Ghildiyal
-The Times of India NEW DELHI: The Centre is likely to make it mandatory that 60% of work undertaken in a district under the job guarantee scheme- MGNREGA- should be linked to agriculture. The rural development ministry will incorporate the mandatory clause in Schedule-1 of the MGNREGA so that every state has to follow the norms designed to give a fillip to agriculture through labour-intensive work under the job scheme. RD secretary...
More »Having a free press is a necessary condition for responsive government and reduced corruption -Prasanna Tantri
-The Times of India Last month's general election brought the role of media under the spotlight. Media faced severe criticism from political parties, intellectuals and industry insiders for allegedly being partisan during elections. A large section of mainstream media has been castigated as "paid media" by social media enthusiasts. In this context, however, a great deal of work already exists in the political economy literature analyzing the real effects of having a...
More »Delhi becomes first kerosene-free city in India
-PTI The Delhi Government on Tuesday announced that the national capital has become the first ‘kerosene-free city' in the country. "With the successful implementation of Delhi: A Kerosene-Free City Scheme, 2012, no subsidised kerosene is being issued in the national capital and the country can save upto Rs 200 crores every year," said S.S. Yadav, Commissioner, Food Supply and Weights and Measures. The scheme was launched in 2012 in collaboration with three Oil...
More »Agriculture And Not The Stock Market Is The Reality Of India -Roshan Kishore
-The Citizen.in This piece is a rejoinder to an article by D K Joshi, which appeared in ‘The Indian Express' on June 4, 2014. The main arguments made by the author are neither new nor unique. Many neoliberal economists, including some occupying crucial policy-making positions have been making arguments which propose dilution of Minimum Support Price (MSP) policies to take care of excess food stocks with the government and also control...
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