-The Economic Times   Shibu Joseph ( Why I am Quitting my Job, ET, March 29) suggests, tongue-in-cheek, that he should quit the drudgery of corporate life and, instead, enjoy the "freebies" given to the aam aadmi, like the right to work under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA).  I am not going to write on behalf of the crores of people who work in this programme, because I am...

-The Times of India Karnataka, reeling under severe drought, has received a body blow: the Centre has withheld its next instalment of grant to a rural job scheme citing five shortcomings in its implementation in the state. "The release of the next instalment of the central share (for the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme) to the state depends very crucially on how it is able to spend the funds...

HETA, India – At the entrance to this village in India’s eastern state of Jharkhand, a large pond glistened under the bright autumn sun. Yellow and blue lilies surrounded it. A tailor was stitching clothes outside his shop while a few boys nearby were playing carrom on the lid of a rusted oil barrel. It was a tranquil, rustic setting – a candidate for a landscape painting, it seemed. But it...

Officials may pocket the wage increases, but the wage level in MGNREGA seems just enough to induce workers to turn up. This year marks the sixth anniversary of the implementation of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), India's landmark right-to-work programme. The Act guarantees 100 days of paid employment to every rural household in India (up to 850 million people), regardless of eligibility criteria, and establishes the government's...

The Centre is keen to resolve differences with rights activists over the remuneration under its flagship rural job guarantee scheme, which can potentially save it from paying 7,000 crore in arrears to states that have higher minimum wages.  Wages under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) have risen for all states after the government made adjustments for price rise last month. But despite the revision, the payout is...