After deliberating for well over seven months, the Union government has eventually evolved a scheme to extend the scope of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MNREGA) on individual land holdings with Rs. 1.5 lakh as the upper limit of expenditure. The Rural Development Ministry has prepared a draft guideline, detailing not only the works that could be taken up for implementation but also the conditions to govern the...

The Supreme Court today directed all state governments to set up juvenile boards, child welfare committees and juvenile police units within six weeks. A bench, headed by Justice Dalveer Bhandari, passed the order while hearing a public interest litigation that sought the court’s intervention to deal with child trafficking, which is rampant in the areas bordering Nepal and Bangladesh. The People’s Union for Civil Liberties, the petitioner, said that juvenile welfare committees...

Top priority should be given to farmers’ and farm-related issues Collectors told to monitor the progress of welfare schemes Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister K. Rosaiah has set a six-point agenda for Collectors to provide good governance and to gear up the official machinery for effectively implementing welfare/development programmes in Andhra Pradesh. During an informal meeting with Chief Secretary S. V. Prasad and CMO officials on Sunday ahead of two-day Collectors’ conference, scheduled from...

In February 2011, India will become the first country in the world to issue its residents biometric-based numbers (UID) to establish identity. For this purpose, the Central government has constituted the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) under the Planning Commission. The UID number is marketed as a fundamental enabler for efficient delivery of government services and inclusive development. As per the Authority, benefits of the UID number include elimination...

The government needs to allocate more funds for public health. The mismatch between the declared objective of universal healthcare through the public health system and the actual level of expenditure remains serious.  One of the three most important planks on which Barak Obama won the U.S. presidential election was the country’s healthcare system, which he promised to fix. Indeed, the most important legislative measure initiated by Mr. Obama so far...