-The Indian Express Covid-related crisis offers NDA government opportunity to increase work days, entitlements under the employment guarantee scheme. In a recent article (‘Credit where it isn’t due’, IE, June 10), Union Minister for Rural Development Narendra Singh Tomar described the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) as a “failing scheme” before 2014. MGNREGA under the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government was by no means perfect, but when the National...

-TheWire.in There remains a wide chasm between the financial resources committed in budgets and the actual expenditure aimed at providing social security benefits for workers. The unprecedented crisis that the unplanned lockdown pushed workers into has once again forced social activists and researchers to contemplate over whether a legislation passed in 2008 by parliament could have provided relief to workers. Careful scrutiny of the financial resources as committed in budgets and the actual...

-The Indian Express If done well, One Nation, One Ration Card, could lay the foundation of a truly national and portable benefits system that includes other welfare programmes like LPG subsidy and social pensions. The economic crisis precipitated by COVID-19 has focussed the country’s attention on inter-state migrants. Millions of Indians in this diverse, complex group have crossed state borders in search of better economic opportunities. The crisis, however, has highlighted their...

-NDTV The booklet containing what the centre has done for people, especially migrants, will be widely circulated, the source said, adding the massive publicity campaign will be the main thrust of the entire exercise. New Delhi: The centre will launch an "image correction" exercise to counter what is seen as not doing enough to help stranded and hungry migrant workers amid the lockdown necessitated by the coronavirus pandemic, sources have said. The centre...

-NDTV The government had issued a set of guidelines on Wednesday for the movement of all stranded people, migrant labourers, students and tourists, and asked states to follow up with the formation of nodal authorities. New Delhi: The government's move to allow stranded migrant labourers to go home has been spurred by concerns about a political fallout, sources have told NDTV. The issue was flagged at a recent meeting between BJP chief...