-Down to Earth State plans to bring down its minimum wage rate to that under MGNREGA TO reduce the burden of the state exchequer by Rs 600 crore, Bihar has decided to reduce its minimum wage rate offered to unskilled labourers, and make it on a par with the rate offered under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA). This is despite the Supreme Court’s ruling, in many cases, that...

-Live Mint Attempt to broad-base direct benefits transfer plan may help shore up the Congress’s standing among rural population The Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government plans to include its flagship rural job guarantee programme in the second phase of its ambitious direct benefits transfer (DBT) plan, under which beneficiaries of social welfare programmes will receive money directly in their Aadhaar-linked bank accounts. The attempt to broad-base the cash transfer plan before several...

-PTI The Income Tax department has decided to crack the whip on big companies and organisations that do not remit TDS money even after deducting it from their workers' salaries. The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT), the controlling and administrative authority of the department, has asked all I-T ranges to identify such cases where revenue implication is large and initiate prosecution in competent courts. The action will be taken under Section 276B...

-Economic and Political Weekly A debate on the study "A Cost-Benefit Analysis of Aadhaar" conducted by the National Institute of Public Finance and Policy which was discussed in the EPW of 2 February 2013. Sumathi Chandrashekaran, Shekhar H Kumar, Smriti Parsheera, Ila Patnaik, Madhavi Pundit, Suyash Rai, Ajay Shah A debate on the study “A Cost-Benefit Analysis of Aadhaar” conducted by the National Institute of Public Finance and Policy which was discussed in...

-Rising Kashmir Srinagar: The criterion for laborers getting wages with Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) in Bandipora villages is not a job card but a rooster. “Even if you have worked efficiently, you will be paid wages only if you have a desi rooster to gift the officials,” locals from various Bandipora villages said. Alleging corruption in the release of funds, people from Zaban Chuntimulla said authorities were not releasing...