The Opposition on Tuesday termed the Union Budget as a 'kursi bachao budget' driven by political compulsions and claimed that it ignored opposition-ruled states in a bid to 'appease' Bharatiya Janata Party's allies.
Ramesh's reply came when he was asked whether grants would be provided to Karnataka for the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act and Indira Awas Yojana as the state was now under the Congress rule.
'Generating employment requires a shift in policy.' 'If not, the country will face economic, social and political challenges in the coming years.'
Nearing the four crore (40 million) mark in providing jobs under MGNREGA, re-launching the Provision of Urban Amenities in Rural Areas scheme and reinforcing social audit in programmes on complaints of irregularities were the foremost tasks of the rural development ministry in 2010.
Assuming we still have a Modi-led majority government after May 2024, there is no guarantee that reforms will move at anything more than a snail's pace, though we must be thankful even for that, notes R Jagannathan.
'The global situation is not very good.'
Government claims big successes in agriculture, rural roads & investment scenario.
There was no announcement from the government on guaranteeing a minimum basic income, which is the need of the hour. The announcements on portability of ration cards and affordable rental housing to workers are for the long and medium terms. Migrant workers need immediate relief.
NDA under Mr Modi is as focused on the rural poor with doles and hand-outs as the UPA under Dr Singh was.
Good monsoon is likely to create more jobs in the agriculture sector, which in turn could save the exchequer around Rs 10,000 crore
Could it have been more reformist? Of course, but this is an election year Budget, observes Akash Prakash.
With the reality of coalition politics staring the BJP in its face, this was inevitable, points out Ramesh Menon.
In a notification, the Union Home Ministry said an eligible beneficiary desirous of receiving the benefit under the 'Central Scheme for Assistance to Civilian Victims/Family of Victims of Terrorist/Communal/LWE Violence and Cross Border Firing and Mine/IED Blasts on Indian Territory' is required to furnish proof of possession of Aadhaar number or undergo Aadhaar authentication.
The Congress chief said if his party is elected to power, its government would spend 6 per cent of the GDP on education.
In other welfare schemes, such as those for cooking gas, pension and scholarships, which are linked to DBT, cash is transferred directly into the bank accounts of beneficiaries.
The Congress will only be able to gain from the bill if its benefits percolate down to the people within the next eight months, says Anita Katyal
Slamming the Bharatiya Janata Party for its "politics of India Shining," Rahul Gandhi on Thursday reached out to the poor and rural youths in Bundelkhand, hard-selling the United Progressive Alliance's flagship schemes of food security, land acquisition and job guarantee programme Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act.
'What should surprise BJP supporters is Modi's call for 'stability' at the manifesto launch, a theme that he and his team members had not touched ahead of the Lok Sabha polls in 2014 and 2019.' 'The last time the party called for 'stability at the Centre' was in 1998 and 1999,' recalls N Sathiya Moorthy.
Timely onset of south-west monsoon is crucial for kharif (summer) crops.
A land-owning class, the Jats are a powerful community and account for 28 per cent of Haryana's population. The time, they believe, has now come for them to take revenge.
The plan includes step-wise expansion of a crucial credit guarantee net, establishment of an unprecedented number of functional clusters and increased government procurement from MSMEs.
Less than nine per cent of Chhattisgarh households got jobs for 100 days under Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act during 2007-08 to 2011-12, a Comptroller and Auditor General report tabled in the assembly on Wednesday said.
The Wayanad MP, who is on two-day visit to his constituency in poll-bound Kerala, also took on Prime Minister Narendra Modi on MGNREGA.
The new Chief Economic Advisor Krishnamurthy Subramanian believes that more than unemployment, it is the quality of employment which needs to be focused on. In an interview with Arup Roychoudhury and Indivjal Dhasmana, Subramanian said that controlling inflation was the Modi government's biggest achievement.
Singh Deo will, however, remain the minister for Health and Family Welfare, Medical Education, Twenty Point Implementation and Commercial Tax departments.
The party's research department team, which Rajya Sabha member M V Rajeev Gowda heads, has sifted through the suggestions received in the last five months, and the manifesto is slated to be released later this month, reports Archis Mohan.
The BJP would want that by March 2022, when UP votes, the economy starts looking up and it heads into the polls with no other issue distracting from its main poll plank of the construction of the Ram temple in Ayodhya.
One popular strategy is to hire contract workers.
This is the full text of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's address to media persons ahead of his interaction with them in New Delhi on Friday
According to a 2021 Redseer report, India's overseas education market is estimated to more than double to $80 billion by 2024.
The National Judicial Commission Bill, 2022, was introduced after the majority of voice votes were in its favour.
As the world awaits the end of the global pandemic, rural Bengal might be witnessing a recession unfolding in bits and pieces. With factories and tea gardens closing down, agricultural income falling and storm Aila ravaging a large part of deltaic West Bengal in 2010, migration gradually became a norm.
Had Finance Minister Sitharaman thought a little more about the middle class, disadvantaged sections, and the poor who are struggling, it would have been an inclusive Budget that would have made history, notes Ramesh Menon.
'Usually, urban wage rates are 50 per cent higher than rural wage rates. But, this could be narrowing very rapidly now,' points out Mahesh Vyas, CEO, Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy.
India must be prepared to deal with climate disasters, geopolitical confrontations, and social strife linked to global events, asserts Jayant Sinha, chairman of Parliament's Standing Committee on Finance.
On Gandhi Jayanti, she also invoked the Father of the Nation, to assail the government which, she claimed, swears by his name but demolishes his ideals through its actions.
he government is examining a plan of bank recapitalisation and considering an urban version of MNREGS.
For states like West Bengal, Bihar, Odisha, Jharkhand and Uttar Pradesh, where migration is high, the return of workers could be as much an opportunity as a liability. All states have launched portals to register migrant workers; additional fields like nature of employment and remuneration in the past 2-3 years are being added to help in skill mapping.
Atul Bhatnagar, COO, National Skills Development Corporation tells us how we can effectively tackle the issue of unemployability and make our youth more employable.
Modi Sarkar will not stand on ceremonies even if that means stepping on the Constitution, says Udit Misra.
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