-The Hindu Far from being ‘useless’, the MNREGA helps the impoverished and resilient poor earn a decent living. Famously on the floor of Parliament, Prime Minister Modi dismissed the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MNREGA) as a ‘living monument’ of the previous governments’ failures, condemning millions of impoverished people to survive by ‘digging ditches’. This spring near Bhim in Rajasthan, I had the rare experience of labouring on an MGNREGA site....
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Meals under a bridge: The story of a man who feeds the poor with his own money -Nitin B
-TheNewsMinute.com Telengana: Everyday a large number of homeless, poor people who cannot afford a decent meal, line up in neat rows under the Dabeerpura bridge in Hyderabad. Every man, woman and child wait for their turn to pick up a plate, washes it and sits down in formations. Many in the line have not eaten for days, but they still wait their turn. Without a hassle, rice is served on each...
More »Towards a strategy for climate change talks -Montek S Ahluwalia
-Business Standard Nations below a level of per-capita GDP representing a peaking point could be allowed to expand total emissions The world's climate change negotiators will meet again in December in Paris. The good news is that all countries, including developing countries, have agreed to announce their "intended nationally determined contributions" (INDCs). The bad news is that they are nowhere near an agreement on action by individual countries that could limit global...
More »Let’s not miss the wood -Arvind Khare
-The Hindu Narendra Modi has asked for land rights to be granted quickly to tribals, but for that to happen, the forest bureaucracy’s stranglehold on power must first go On June 23, Prime Minister Narendra Modi directed the Ministry of Tribal Affairs (MoTA) to ensure that all States implement the Forest Rights Act (FRA) and grant land rights to tribals over the next two months. Mr. Modi’s announcement is welcome, but nevertheless...
More »In a first, 109 sent to jail for urinating in public -Arvind Chauhan
-The Times of India Agra: In an unprecedented cleanliness drive, and perhaps, for the first time in India, Government Railway Police of Agra division has sent 109 persons to jail for 24 hours after they were found urinating on the railway property, including platform, tracks parking lot. They were later released after paying a fine ranging from Rs 100 to Rs 500 depending on the gravity of the act of creating...
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