-The Economic Times NEW DELHI: Rural development minister Nitin Gadkari has indicated that the new government may restrict the rural employment guarantee scheme, the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, only to tribal and backward districts of the country. "MNREGA is not required in areas where per capita income is high, higher growth rate and higher agricultural growth rate... it is required only in tribal sector and (areas of) Poor," Gadkari...

-Down to Earth   The post-MDGs target seems impossible as chronic poverty sets in. Now, more Poor people are becoming chronically Poor compared to earlier times. The subject needs a different debate and design The State of Food Insecurity in the World report is an annual state of affairs report published by the FAO, the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) and the UN World Food Programme. The timing of the report is...

-Down to Earth Asia houses 526 million of the 805 million chronically undernourished people in the world The good news is that the world today is producing enough to support the projected population of nine billion people by 2050. But the bad news is that still 805 million people-or one in every nine people-are hungry in the world, says a new report by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the International Fund...

-Employment News The article highlights the fact that the urban areas have failed to meet the demands of the increasing population pressure resulting in large gaps in provisioning of basic amenities. Deprivation of such services has resulted in the expanding of slums with conditions unfit for human habitation. This article suggests that the government must take into account the limitations of its interventions for the urban Poor and address the challenges...

-The Hindu The Odisha government has made the right announcements to improve the plight of migrant workers, but a lot more needs to be done In December 2013, a labourer chopped off the palms of two migrant workers from western Odisha. He had paid them an advance for working in the brick kilns of Hyderabad and did not take kindly to their arguing with him about the payment and place of work....