Rural job scheme NREGA will be revamped to address problems such as delayed wage payments, lack of asset creation and poor skill development among the workers. “There are several structural issues in NREGA. The scheme will be restructured in the next one month,” rural development minister Jairam Ramesh said on a day the Sonia Gandhi-headed National Advisory Council reviewed problems in the UPA’s showpiece welfare programme. Ramesh said the NAC’s suggestions would...

New-look programme to be rolled out in 2,000 most backward blocks within a year As part of a coordinated and aligned initiative, the Sonia Gandhi-led National Advisory Council, a re-energised Union Rural Development Ministry and the Planning Commission are working in tandem to make up for the time and money lost due to the underperformance in UPA-II on the government's flagship programme, the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme. Even as...

Employment data indicates that India's recent growth has been largely jobless, the government must adjust its policies and promote job creation. Every five years, India's statistical system releases the results of a large scale sample survey that generates comprehensive data about consumer expenditure, employment conditions and much else. The results of the most recent survey conducted from July 2009 to June 2010 have just been released, and they have created shock...

The results of the latest NSSO large survey on employment and unemployment provide crucial evidence on the pattern of inadequate job creation in this phase of high economic growth. This edition of MacroScan provides an initial analysis of the results. No sooner were the results of the 66th Round of the National Sample Survey Organisation (relating to data collected in 2009-10) released, than they became the subject of great controversy. Surprisingly,...

Casual work, self-employment still rule Q&A Why are fewer women working? Education schemes and higher wages of men are keeping them home for longer. Why is casual work growing? The biggest employment scheme, NREGA, employs casual workers. Why is self-employment down? The least-paying jobs in the self-employment sector are worse than NREGA entitlements. *** The latest official figures on employment say this: a typical Indian worker is male, starts working in his mid-20s, is presumably better educated than...