Although social activists and concerned economists demanded at least Rs. 1 lakh crore to be earmarked in favour of the Mahatma Gandhi Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS), the Finance Minister in her budget speech on 1st February allocated only Rs.61,500 crore to it for the financial year 2020-21. As compared to the fund spent on MGNREGA in 2019-20 (i.e. revised estimate of Rs.71,001.81 crore), the amount set aside for the...
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Migrants Back In Jharkhand: ‘Give us a reason to stay… something beyond MGNREGA’ -Abhishek Angad
-The Indian Express The Indian Express spoke to a cross-section of migrant workers back from different parts of the country. These are day labourers and skilled workers such as carpenter, embroiderer, welder, among others. One thread connects them — demand for something beyond MGNREGA. Ranchi: Rakesh Verma and Suresh Yadav had left their homes in Jharkhand for jobs in metro cities and were in no hurry to return. Verma, 22, had a...
More »Usharmukti project: A confluence of institutions for rejuvenating rivers -Ashwini Kulkarni
-IdeasforIndia.in Usharmukti, a project of the Government of West Bengal, is being carried out in collaboration with civil society organisations in the western part of the state, to carry out watershed activities under MNREGA to conserve soil and water. In this note, Ashwini Kulkarni describes the main idea behind and working of the innovative project from her visit to the project area. When a farmer says that with potato in Rabi season...
More »Not many lessons learnt from water planning failures -J Harsha
-The Hindu In the absence of scientific planning and implementation, measures like Jal Shakti Abhiyan may not be successful Following the massive water crisis across India in the summer of 2019, the Central government hurriedly launched the Jal Shakti Abhiyan (JSA), a time-bound, mission-mode water conservation campaign to be carried out in two phases, across the 255 districts having critical and over-exploited groundwater levels. This campaign, however, was not intended to be...
More »Institutions weakened, economy crippled -M Suresh Babu
-The Hindu The credibility of the RBI, the CSO and the Niti Aayog has taken a beating in recent times due to political interference Nobel laureate Oliver Williamson Pondered over an important question, around 25 years ago: “Why are the ambitions of economic development practitioners and reformers so often disappointed?” According to him, “one answer is that development policymakers and reformers are congenital optimists. Another answer is that good plans are regularly...
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