-The Indian Express Before contemplating new rural programmes, government must expand MGNREGA In the run up to the elections, a plethora of redistributive programmes, including farm loan waivers, cash transfers and minimum income guarantees came to the forefront as campaigners sought to balm rural distress. Amongst these is a proposal to launch a revised NREGA 3.0, in which 150 days of employment would be guaranteed to the rural poor. Almost 15...

-The Hindu Information panel calls for time bound investigation The Central Information Commission (CIC) has directed the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) to disclose information on its investigation and recovery of money from the perpetrators of the Saradha Realty chit fund scam. Investigations must be time bound and transparent keeping in mind the interests of lakhs of affected investors, said CIC. The Rs.10,000 crore Saradha chit fund scam came to light...

-Newsclick.in The report released today by the Centre for Media Studies has estimated these elections as the most expensive elections held ever; BJP spent about 45% of the total expenditure. With an estimated Rs 60,000 crore front-end expenditure, the recently concluded 2019 Lok Sabha elections is the most expensive elections held ever, according to a report by Centre for Media Studies (CMS), a premier research organisation. The report estimated that Rs 700...

-Newsclick.in Unemployment is estimated at 9.35% in 2019 by CMIE, far worse than the PLFS/NSSO estimate of 6.1% for 2017-18. Finally, the government has released the suppressed report on unemployment, now that elections are done and dusted with. Meanwhile, joblessness has worsened dramatically with an estimated 4.17 crore people unemployed, according to another recent report of the CMIE (Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy), based on a similar sample survey. The government had directed...

-The Hindu Trend is towards control of content The production of media content and its distribution are becoming increasingly combined and concentrated in the hands of a few, finds the Media Ownership Monitor (MOM), a research project carried out in India over the past six months by Reporters Without Borders and the Delhi-based digital media company DataLEADS. The study, presented in Delhi on Wednesday, also assesses the media space as a narrow one,...