-The Hindu   They had sought inter alia universal social security cover for both organised and unorganised sectors Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Friday said some of the demands raised by the various central trade unions, for which they organised a nationwide general strike for two days in February, were in advanced stage of consideration of the government. Those demands include universal social security cover for workers in both organised and unorganised sectors and...

-The Hindu   Investment in a scheme that guarantees rural employment with minimum wages should be seen as complementary and not alternative to development activities A recent paper by the Commission for Agricultural Costs and Prices (CACP) has argued that the "push" factors of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) are not as important as the economic growth "pull" factors, for increasing agricultural wages. The paper has received wide media...

-The Hindustan Times The UPA government intends to put the world's biggest job guarantee programme - MGNREGA - on its "game-changer" money transfer platform - the Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) from this October. That would happen if the government agencies are able to provide unique identification or Aadhaar numbers to entire population in 51 districts, where the government intends to put MGNREGA under DBT mode, and the banks and posts offices come...

A recent statistical study by Indian researchers suggest that the MNREGA program in rural Andhra Pradesh might be having a positive effect on school enrolment and grades by improving the bargaining power of women within their household, as a consequence of earning wages in the rural job security program. The study is based on data from rural households in 5 districts in Andhra Pradesh and comprised of 3006 children, comparing...

-The Financial Express Seven years after MGNREGA came into being, the CAG report tabled on Tuesday in Parliament paints a dismal picture of the UPA's flagship rural employment guarantee programme. According to the CAG, while employment generation fell from 54 days per household in FY10 to 43 days in FY12, states that account for 46% of the rural poor - Bihar, Maharashtra and UP - utilised only a fifth of the...