-The Hindu   Far from being ‘useless’, the MNREGA helps the impoverished and resilient poor earn a decent living. Famously on the floor of Parliament, Prime Minister Modi dismissed the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MNREGA) as a ‘living monument’ of the previous governments’ failures, condemning millions of impoverished people to survive by ‘digging ditches’. This spring near Bhim in Rajasthan, I had the rare experience of labouring on an MGNREGA site....

-The Times of India GUWAHATI: With the onset of monsoon in the northeast, Assam has been hit by the first wave of floods affecting over 60,000 people in nine districts of the state. At least one person has been washed away in the fresh wave of deluge. The Assam State Disaster Management Authority on Monday said the Brahmaputra and the Jia Bharali were flowing above the danger mark at Nematighat in Jorhat...

-PTI GUWAHATI: One person was killed and nearly 33,000 affected as six districts of Assam have been hit by flood. The deceased belonged to Bongaigaon district, Assam State Disaster Management Authority (ASDMA) deputy secretary Nandita Hazarika said in a statement on Sunday. Nearly 33,000 people in 108 villages of Barpeta, Sonitpur, Dhemaji, Kokrajhar, Bongaigaon and Lakhimpur districts were affected, she added. Barpeta district was the worst affected with 12,200 people being affected due to...

-The Hindu Met department forecasts more rains, residents move to safer areas Srinagar remained on the edge throughout Monday with thousands of shopkeepers moving out goods from their shops and people ferrying their families to safer areas as the water level in the Jhelum kept rising till this evening. Though the rain stopped early on Sunday morning, the Meteorological Department has forecast more rain, with heavy showers expected all through Wednesday, fuelling fears...

-The Telegraph New Delhi: Millions of villagers are on course to missing out on livelihood-sustaining work under the national job scheme this year if figures released by the government are any indication. The figures suggest that by the time this financial year draws to a close, far fewer families will have benefited under the scheme compared with 2013-14, while the number of persondays of work generated would also drop significantly. According to official...