-The Times of India RANCHI: If deposits in banks are indicative of prosperity of a region, Jharkhand villages have been blazing quite a trail over the past couple of years. The volume of money deposited with rural bank branches witnessed a whopping 34% increase over the last fiscal as against increase of mere 19% in the urban bank branches. With emphasis on financial inclusion, linking MGNREGA Wages with bank accounts and...

-The Hindu Literacy has helped people in the State maximise the benefits of the rural employment guarantee scheme Kerala’s achievements have long been celebrated by development economists — high literacy rates, including among girls, low infant mortality rates and so on. There has also been a spate of writings highlighting the ills of Kerala society. Critics have pointed to the high rates of suicides and feminists have also raised difficult questions. While...

-The Economic Times The positive impact on agricultural wages and distress migration from rural areas not withstanding, the government's flagship rural employment scheme, the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, leaves a lot to be desired for. This is evident from the rural development ministry's compendium of more than 100 major research papers on the programme, MGNREGA Sameeksha. The slim 120-odd page volume, which is to be released by the Prime Minister...

-The Telegraph The Prime Minister today expressed surprise that “concurrent evaluation” of the rural job scheme was “not in good shape” and asked Planning Commission deputy chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia to “apply his mind to making good this deficiency”. Concurrent evaluation is an assessment of a scheme’s impact, strength and weaknesses while it is being implemented, as distinct from the annual CAG audit or a post-mortem. Its objective is to identify problems...

-The Times of India In a rare move, government on Saturday released a compendium of independent studies on job guarantee scheme — both appreciative and critical of the programme — prompting Prime Minister Manmohan Singhto ask the rural development ministry to fix the issue of delayed payment for workers and minister Jairam Ramesh flagging corruption as a problem.  Top policymakers of UPA gathered at the PM's residence for the release of "MGNREGA...