Civil society groups, led by the NREGA Sangharsh Morcha, are planning a nationwide protest -- similar to the farmers' stir a few years ago -- starting December 19 demanding scrapping of the new Viksit Bharat-Guarantee for Rozgar and Aajeevika Mission.
'A work guarantee that can be switched off at will is no guarantee at all.'
'Previously, contributing only 25 per cent of material costs, states now face burdens of 40 per cent to 100 per cent of total costs, ensuring poorer states will curb project approvals, directly stifling work demand.'
Development economist Jean Dreze said the Indian democracy is currently navigating a crisis that is not only limited to the 'recent wave of authoritarianism' but also suppression of opposition voices by the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party.
Dreze and Gupta were taken into preventive custody for organising a programme without taking permission.
India might be heading towards a "serious livelihood crisis" as the situation seems to be worse this time for the working class amid the COVID crisis and local restrictions by states already add up to something close to a nationwide lockdown, according to noted economist Jean Dreze. In an interview to PTI, he also said the government's target to make India a $5 trillion economy by 2024-25 was never a "feasible target" and was just to pander to the "super-power ambitions" of the Indian elite. About the impact of the second wave of COVID on the Indian economy, the eminent economist said the situation today is not very different from what it was around this time last year as far as working people are concerned.
'For the first time in this country, perhaps the first time anywhere, we are going to use backwardness index.' 'It is a fundamental shift in the discourse in the country's social justice.'
'If we want real democracy, the economy itself will need to be democratised.'
The CBI has registered a case of alleged violation of the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act against human rights activist Harsh Mander and his NGO, and searched his premises on Friday, officials said.
More than 750 eminent citizens, including historian Romila Thapar, economist Jean Dreze and actor Naseeruddin Shah, on Wednesday came out in support of a news website which is alleged to have received dubious funds to spread Chinese propaganda.
Jean Dreze, a noted economist who was was a member of Sonia Gandhi led National Advisory Council, was dropped from the list of speakers at the Delhi Economics Conclave organised by the finance ministry and inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
The Tamil Nadu government will constitute an 'economic advisory council' to the chief minister comprising Nobel laureates, former Reserve Bank of India governor and other economic experts from around the globe to advise the state on how to reverse the economic slowdown.
'We cannot leave our entire unorganised sector to the vagaries of market forces.'
There are reasons for India to hang its head in shame," says Amartya Sen in an interview this week.
A 'pause-and-review' approach to nuclear power isn't extreme. Safety is too precious to be sacrificed to appease our nuclear lobby, writes Praful Bidwai
Non-government activists Aruna Roy and Jean Dreze, who are widely regarded as architects of the National Rural Employment Guarantee Programme (NREGP), boycotted its fourth anniversary celebrations at Vigyan Bhavan, on Tuesday, as a protest against the manner in which the programme had been implemented.
The Centre, last year, had also decided to freeze the minimum wage paid under NREGA at Rs 100. Subsequently, the wages paid in many states under NREGA are lower than the minimum wages in the state.
Former Union panchayat raj minister Mani Shankar Aiyar, lately in the news for denouncing the Commonwealth Games, is aiming his guns much closer to the United Progressive Alliance government's heart, at the way it is implementing the flagship National Rural Employment Guarantee Act.
An activist working for the implementation of the National Rural Employment Guarantee scheme was killed after being mercilessly beaten by a group of 12 Maoists at Jerua village in Latehar district of Jharkhand.
The National Advisory Council, chaired by Congress party president Sonia Gandhi, met for the second time on Thursday after its recent revival and unanimously endorsed the idea of universal access to the public distribution system (PDS) in rural areas.
The National Advisory Council, chaired by Congress party president Sonia Gandhi, met for the second time on Thursday after its recent revival and unanimously endorsed the idea of universal access to the public distribution system in rural areas. It was agreed that a universalised PDS should be implemented initially in 150 districts, a member said.
The first meeting of the newly-reconstituted Central Employment Guarantee Council last week, meant to oversee the National Rural Employment Guarantee Programme, saw two prominent members, Jean Dreze and Aruna Roy, object to various new ideas of the government, beginning with the one of using it to build Bharat Nirman Rajiv Gandhi Seva Kendras, meant to serve as offices for panchayats.
The demand for cash transfers was highest in Bihar at 54 per cent, followed by 34 per cent in Uttar Pradesh and 22 per cent in Jharkhand, where the access to PDS foodgrain was found limited.
Jean Dreze, who is also member of the Central Employment Guarantee Council, Ritika Khera and Anirban Kar - all from the Delhi School of Economics -- have pointed out that though bank payment of wages is seen as a magic solution to delayed payment and non-payment of wages under the Rs 25,000-crore (Rs 250-billion) scheme, making bank payments mandatory is a step taken without necessary precautions.
Members protest, rural ministry assures it will not be so hereafter.
The purpose of the rural job scheme is being defeated as, in this drought year, focus on providing work and timely wages is lost in other things, says economist and activist Jean Dreze.
Orissa, where the programme was already under a cloud after an NGO alleged false data were being entered on the state's NREGA website, is now uncovering more scams. A team of researchers led by economist Jean Dreze and Ritika Khera, which is doing a survey focussed mainly on the corruption in the programme in Orissa, recently dug out a doctored muster roll in Badhigam gram panchayat of Boudh district.
Kumar has said that his government would introduce a bill in connection to set up the university in the state assembly soon.
108 economists, social scientists said it was imperative that agencies like CSO and NSSO are not subject to political interference.
'Welfare schemes are not a necessary evil, they are a necessary good.'
From social engineering to bearing the cost of COVID-19 treatment to financial reconstruction of Tamil Nadu's debt the debutant chief minister is emerging as a leader with a difference, says Shjne Jacob
Finance Minister P Chidambaram on Monday made a veiled attack on Narendra Modi and Arvind Kejriwal, telling them "neither populism nor individualism" is an alternative way of governance and expressed confidence that people will entrust responsibility to a "hand" that works for equity.
Unless public health is prioritised over swift re-opening, the chances are that a third wave will hit India sooner than we would like.
The Centre is grappling with the question of its fiscal roadmap not only for this year but for 2018-19
The Bharatiya Janata Party's prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi has faced a lot of flak on the Gujarat development mode. On Tuesday, criticism came from an unexpected corner when principal of St Xavier's College in Mumbai, one of the premiere institutions, sent out a letter to nearly 3,000 students critiquing Gujarat's development model.
'Since the NDA took office in 2014, and aggressively since 2019, the Union government seems hell bent on centralising all power and resources, only to fail spectacularly.'
'Education is disconnected from social reality and does not even attempt to solve the real problems of our country,' observe Peehu Pardeshi and Sandeep Pandey.
'Stan's death is the culmination of a series of acts of abominable cruelty on the part of the Indian State.'
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