-The Guardian After a decade of success, the landmark scheme is being starved of money by a central government seemingly intent on reining in rural wage growth Ten years ago this week, the Indian parliament unanimously passed the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA). It was a historic legislation based on two interlinked goals: ensuring livelihood security to rural residents by providing at least 100 days of guaranteed wage employment...
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India struggles to keep its children healthy, say experts -Jyotsna Singh
-Down to Earth Lack of credible data and co-ordinated action slow country's efforts to contain malnutrition Even though India's programmes for nutrition in children were carried out to meet the UN Millennium Development Goals, the Global Health Report-2014 shows that their health has not improved substantially. While 46 per cent of under-5 children were stunted in 1997,the figure rose to 48 per cent in 2006. Reduction in stunting from 1990 to 2011 was...
More »Govt apathy fanning protests against hydro projects: Himachal experts panel -Chander Suta Dogra
-The Indian Express Chandigarh: A panel of experts appointed by the Himachal Pradesh government has said that popular opposition to large hydel power projects on the Sutlej is being fanned by the establishment's "indifference" to the problems of the people. The panel has rejected the conclusions of a report prepared earlier for the union government, which had said that the adverse impact of the projects can be mitigated by suitable measures. "...Opposition to...
More »Centre mulls steps to cut job scheme cost -Basant Kumar Mohanty
-The Telegraph New Delhi: The NDA government is looking at two possible steps to cut down expenditure on the job guarantee scheme that seeks to provide 100 days of employment a year to every rural household. The rural Development ministry is exploring the idea of limiting the scheme to six months instead of a year in about 4,000 blocks that are not covered under intensive implementation. Workers under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural...
More »Food security: economists challenge official panel’s conclusions -Yogesh Rajput
-Governance Now Shanta Kumar committee recommendation to curtail PDS based on "motivated data fudging" A group of economists have challenged the government move to scale down the ambit of the food security initiative, arguing that leakages in the public distribution system (PDS) are not as bad as an official committee has concluded. A ‘high-level committee on restructuring of FCI', headed by Shanta Kumar, submitted its report to prime minister Narendra Modi last month,...
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