Recent media reports point out that the Bundelkhand region of Uttar Pradesh is likely to get about Rs. 6,300 crore projects ahead of the upcoming Uttar Pradesh assembly polls, including a Rs. 400 crore worth plant for the propulsion system of anti-tank guided missiles in Jhansi. The foundation was laid for the first project in the Jhansi node (related to the Uttar Pradesh Defence Industrial Corridor) on November 18, 2021. The two...

-IdeasforIndia.com The Centre has sought an additional Rs. 25,000 crore as funding for MNREGA (Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act). Based on simple calculations using official data, Ashwini Kulkarni contends that the actual fund requirement is in fact much higher. As the pandemic continues to adversely impact rural livelihoods, the government should allocate sufficient funds to MNREGA, in order to honour the work-on-demand guarantee. For over a month, national and local...

-Newsclick.in BJP wants to turn farmers into daily wage workers in the corporate sector, says the author of the report that analyses the economic status of farmers who died during the ongoing protests. On 26 November 2020, waves upon waves of farmers descended upon India’s Capital. Barricaded from entering Delhi, they pitched tents at three border crossings on the outskirts of the city. They have resolutely stayed there since then, braving the...

-The Hindu There remain delays in the stage where the Central government transfers wages to the workers’ accounts There is a famous parable of the 13th-century mystic Mullah Nasruddin. He was once spotted under a street light searching frantically for a key that he had lost. A passer-by noticed the frazzled Nasruddin and stopped to help him. After both of them spent a long time searching for the key, the exasperated passer-by...

-Newsclick.in On Saturday, the Ministry of Rural Development denied that the rural jobs scheme was facing a shortage of funds. Its response, however, “leaves many questions unanswered,” according to civil society members. Activists have questioned the Centre’s response to media reports on the shortage of available funds for the rural employment guarantee scheme in the current financial year, by alleging that it is “misleading” and that it leaves many raised questions “unanswered.” Last...