-The Indian Express The NDA government’s approach towards MGNREGA — the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act — has differed from that of the previous UPA regime in one significant way: There is greater emphasis now in the building of “individual household” assets, as opposed to “community” assets, under the scheme that provides 100 days of guaranteed wage employment annually to every rural household whose adult members volunteer to do...

-The Times of India PUNE: Navabai Ansari, a maid from Mangalwar Peth, is a harassed woman. It has been over two months now, but the fair price shopowner in her area won’t give her food grains as her husband’s Aadhaar and the ration card are not linked. Nirmala Rajput, a daily wager, from Guruwar Peth has also been denied her mandatory ration by a fair price shopowner in her area for over...

-The Indian Express The move comes after complaints against banks that they were not intimating eligible farmers whose names along with the amount has been cleared by the state government. Mumbai: The state government has decided to directly intimate eligible farmers across 40,913 villages about the loan waiver scheme. The move comes after complaints against banks that they were not intimating eligible farmers whose names along with the amount has been cleared...

-The Hindu Amid criticism from SC/ST panel, experts say project must continue Now in her late twenties, Veeramma Selvan of Thekkekadampara tribal hamlet in Sholayur gram panchayat of Attappady has reasons to believe that her gods have stopped smiling. It was in January last year that she lost her five-month-old, underweight son Balu — her fourth child — allegedly due to milk aspiration. (a medical condition in which the mother's milk goes...

-The Hindu The draft Forest Policy re-emphasises production forestry, raising many ecological and social concerns Government policy documents are statements of goals, priorities and strategies. If old strategies have failed or circumstances have changed, they should be revised. Given that our Forest Policy was last revised in 1988, changes are perhaps overdue. The new draft Forest Policy 2018, however, ignores the lessons from this period and returns to the state-managed forestry of...