OVER 2.5 crore job card holders registered under Mahatama Gandhi National Rural Employment Act (MGNREGA) could be affected by the rural development ministry’s decision to introduce biometrics to the scheme. The job cards of beneficiaries in 200 districts across India are set to expire in 2011. The process of job card renewal under the biometric system would take six months to two years. This would deny the registered people 100 days...
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Indian professors developing authentication system through speech recognition by Bikash Singh & Debjoy Sengupta
Scenario I: An illiterate person walks into an ATM, utters his password in Bhojpuri to withdraw money. Or a labourer working under the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) speaks his voice signature to mark his attendance for the day. Scenario II: The door at a top-secret Indian defence establishment open son a voice recognition system that allows only certain officials access to the premises. If you think this is stuff out...
More »NREGA gets 'smart' by Arvind Mayaram
While there is all-round concern about how the NREGA funds are being utilised at the grass-roots level, the Union rural development ministry has initiated the process of inducting technology to streamline the delivery system under NREGA. This will have a revolutionary impact on programme delivery. With about 50 million people working on site in 2,50,000 panchayats all across the country, the magnitude of the task is daunting. However, once the initial...
More »Rural employment scheme may come under CVC ambit by Rahul Chandran, Ruhi Tewari & Utpal Bhaskar
The Union government plans to empower the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC), which currently oversees the work of state agencies and state-owned companies, to investigate complaints against its flagship rural jobs scheme. The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) promises 100 days of annual work to one member of every rural household. CVC currently has to route complaints about irregularities in the scheme’s execution to a state chief secretary or the...
More »A Visible Hand by Narayan Ramachandran
Teacher absenteeism continues, despite several studies conducted and reasons identified. Can something be done? Another Teacher’s Day has come and gone. Like the ones before it, we have had the usual combination of speeches (New Delhi), awards (Mohali), “felicitations” (Mangalore), blood donations (Ulhasnagar), walkouts (Shillong), food poisonings (Mumbai), teacher thrashings (Malda) and black badges (Ludhiana). Barely a week later, we are back to the status quo. Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, on whose birthday...
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