The countrywide share of corporate retail in food distribution tripled in the past four years when retail food prices showed the greatest increase. THE dramatic increase in food inflation over the past two years has been associated with several surprises. One major surprise has been how the top economic policymakers in the country have responded to it. The initial response was one of apparent disbelief, followed very quickly by the...
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NREGS: 60% rise in funding possible by Jyoti Mukul
The government's biggest welfare programme could see an almost 60 per cent increase in funding. The forthcoming Budget is likely to make a provision of Rs 64,000 crore (Rs 640 billion) for the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme in 2011-12, against Rs 40,100 crore (Rs 401 billion) in the current fiscal. The huge increase in outlay will be mainly on account of two factors: Linking wages under the scheme with...
More »NREGS could see a 60% increase in its outlay by Jyoti Mukul
The government’s biggest welfare programme could see an almost 60 per cent increase in funding. The forthcoming Budget is likely to make a provision of Rs 64,000 crore for the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) in 2011-12, against Rs 40,100 crore in the current fiscal. The huge increase in outlay will be mainly on account of two factors: Linking wages under the scheme with the consumer price...
More »Maximum Dithering for Minimum Wages!
Even though the Central Government agreed to link the wages paid under MG-NREGA to the Consumer Price Index for Agricultural Labourers (CPIAL), it shied away from paying statutory minimum wages in various states of India. Their logic for this: Lack of clarity on who will bear the extra financial burden—the Centre or the states? A letter from the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to UPA and NAC Chairperson Sonia Gandhi dated 31...
More »An unending money illusion
The Union government recently indexed the wages of workers under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) to the consumer price index for agricultural labour (CPI-AL). The step, aimed at boosting the purchasing power of workers, came in the midst of a controversy over the government not linking wages under MGNREGS to the minimum wage under the Minimum Wages Act, 1948. The wage hike, ranging from 17-30%, is likely...
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