Rising prices of dal: How to deal with it? The 68th session of the United Nations General Assembly declared 2016 as the International Year of Pulses. In India, however, ordinary citizens are under enormous duress due to the skyrocketing prices of dal/ lentils since the last one year. The website of Price Monitoring Cell of the Department of Consumer Affairs shows that dal prices varied across places. For example, the...

-Livemint.com The report also suggested revising pay under MGNREGS on the basis of Consumer Price Index for Rural (CPI-Rural) as the appropriate index New Delhi: The finance ministry has rejected a report by the rural development ministry, which recommended that wages under the national rural employment guarantee scheme (NREGS) be made equal to or higher than the minimum wage determined by state governments. The report prepared by a panel headed by S....

-Livemint.com Fresh fund infusion means the overall budget allocation for MGNREGS in 2016-17 will be Rs43,500 crore New Delhi: The Narendra Modi-led National Democratic Alliance government has increased the budget for the national rural employment guarantee scheme by Rs.5,000 crore to Rs.43,500 crore for 2016-17, minister of state for rural development Ram Kripal Yadav told Parliament on Monday. The scheme “will not be shut down but strengthened. It is a special direction...

-The Hindu We need to rethink social safety nets in India’s growing economy so that they can also focus on the accidents of life rather than solely on the accidents of birth. Sometimes the grand narratives of the Left and the Right do not seem to have any relationship with the lived experiences of ordinary Indians. For the past two decades, the Left has tried to expand social welfare programmes for the...

-Down to Earth The report highlights that there are inaccuracies and inconsistencies in valuation of auctioned mines In a report tabled in the monsoon session of the Parliament, the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India states that despite auctions, multiple bids by corporate groups through joint ventures or subsidiaries did not ensure that potential level of competition had been achieved in the first two tranches. The report highlights that there are...