The common man, whose concerns were at the heart of the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance’s two successful election campaigns, doesn’t seem to be the focus of finance minister Pranab Mukherjee’s budget. Experts and political analysts say the aam admi doesn’t appear to be the dominant concern anymore, prompting speculation about Congress party chief Sonia Gandhi’s role. She has thus far been setting the UPA’s social agenda through the National Advisory Council...

Sounding a note of caution, the Economic Survey has stressed that for “growth to be inclusive” India must create adequate Employment opportunities—a call that underlines existing inequality, including urban-rural income disparity, and concern that it may increase as more young people enter the job market. While India’s unEmployment rate has dropped from 8.2% in 2004-05 to 6.6% in 2009-10, the number of jobless is still huge in absolute terms. The...

-IANS   Calling for effective measures to improve the efficiency of social sector programmes, the Economic Survey for 2011-12 has suggested extending the government's ambitious rural jobs scheme to urban areas, strengthening panchayati raj institutions (PRIs) and skill improvement for enhanced employability. The survey, which was presented by Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee in parliament Thursday, said that programmes like Mahatama Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) have been instrumental in creating Employment...

-PTI The UIDAI's Aadhaar project for providing unique identity numbers to residents, has huge potential to improve the delivery of social sector schemes like rural Employment guarantee, the Economic Survey 2011-12 said. "Aadhaar has huge potential for improving operations and delivery of services," the survey said. The Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), attached to the Planning Commission, is engaged in providing residents in the country a Unique Identification number (called Aadhaar) linked...

-PTI Nagaland's rural development departmenthas so far received over Rs 600 crore for implementation of flagship rural Employment guarantee programme during the current year. Nearly Rs 574 crore had been received as central assistance and Rs 27.35 crore as state matching share under the rural Employment scheme so far during the current year, Parliamentary Secretary for rural development Pangnyu Phom informed the house today. Stating that there were nearly 3.69 lakh job card...