-Down to Earth Panel headed by economists S Mahendra Dev also recommends linking wages to Consumer Price Index-Rural as cushion against inflation A committee of experts set up by the Union rural development ministry has recommended that the wages paid to unskilled agricultural labourers under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) should be the minimum wage fixed by the respective state or the current wage as per the consumer...

-Live Mint Panel recommends wages under the MGNREGS be made equal to or higher than the minimum wage determined by state govts New Delhi: A high-level panel constituted by the previous Congress-led United Progressive Alliance government has recommended that wages under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) be made equal to or higher than the minimum wage determined by state governments. The panel, headed by S. Mahendra Dev, director...

-The Hindu   Government policies, vagaries of weather drive them to the wall Anantpur (Andhra Pradesh): The agriculture scenario in the Anantapur district might well be on the path to irreversible damage if unchecked and acted upon with immediate urgency. Over 15 per cent of farmers are leaving agriculture altogether, if the statistics available with the Agriculture Department are to be extrapolated to the ground realities and understood in that context. Speaking to The...

-The Business Standard   Unlike consumer prices, wholesale inflation provides little comfort If the consumer price index (CPI) numbers for May, released last week, provided some comfort about softening inflation, the wholesale price index (WPI) numbers for the same month, released on Monday, did just the opposite. Headline inflation went up from 5.2 per cent year on year in April to six per cent in May, the highest, by a whisker, since December....

-The Indian Express   New Delhi: In the Manmohan Singh PMO, the CPIO was K Salil Kumar and the First Appellate Authority was Krishna Kumar.   Moments after Narendra Modi took oath on May 26, the Prime Minister's Office instantly launched a new version of its website http://www.pmindia.gov.in and http://www.pmindia.nic.in but 15 days later it's yet to disclose key details required under the Right to Information Act.   These include: names of officers designated as Central Public Information...