The total expenditure on the MGNREGA programme, as per the revised estimates from 2025-26, was Rs 88,000 crore, while initially, a sum of Rs 86,000 crore was allocated.
Opposition members strongly opposed the proposed legislation at the introduction stage and pressed for sending the bill to a parliamentary panel for greater scrutiny. The MPs, including Priyanka Gandhi of the Congress, strongly objected to the "removal" of Mahatma Gandhi's name.
A bill to repeal the MGNREGA and introduce a new rural employment law, the Viksit Bharat Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission (Gramin), has been circulated among Lok Sabha members.
Enterprising women business correspondents, known as BC Sakhis, have facilitated transactions worth Rs 27,000 crore in Uttar Pradesh, earning Rs 75 crore in commission over the past four and a half years. BC Sakhis, appointed under the nationwide women empowerment programme, are members of self-help groups (SHGs) who are trained and certified to provide banking and financial services in rural areas.
President Droupadi Murmu has given her assent to the Viksit Bharat Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission (Gramin) Bill, which aims to replace MGNREGA and guarantee 125 days of wage employment per rural household.
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.
The Rural Development Ministry has been allocated Rs 1.88 lakh crore in the Union Budget for 2025-26, around 5.75 per cent more than the allocation in the previous budget.
After the infrastructure sector, the public-private partnership model will be extended to rural job generation as well.
The Kudumbasree, which was the first pioneering effort by the government of Kerala to promote women self-help groups, is all set to become a model for the National Rural Livelihoods mission. The project will be considered as a model for several states with a mission to bring changes in the fortunes of many women.
'At COP30, the emphasis will be on unlocking climate finance, reinforcing the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities, and building resilience through inclusive transitions and the mainstreaming of adaptation.'
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Wednesday said the National Rural Livelihood Mission has achieved remarkable success by mobilising rural women into 1 lakh SHGs (self help groups).
The Centre has allocated Rs 73,000 crore to the rural employment guarantee programme Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act for the next fiscal 2021-22, substantially lower than the actual expenditure of Rs 1.11 lakh crore in the current fiscal which included an additional Rs 40,000 crore for the scheme given by the government in the wake of the pandemic's impact on the economy.
The deposit facility for the women and girls will be for a period of two years with a rate of interest of 7.5 per cent, Sitharaman announced.
The government, they said, will launch a mega drive, Viksit Bharat Sankalp Yatra, across all 2.7 lakh panchayats in the country to reach out to beneficiaries and enrol them.
Rural outlay may go up 23% to reduce pains of demonetisation
Additional infrastructure for dining rooms in each of the school has been recommended.
Gandhi's thrust on the scheme comes at a time when the Congress is bracing for Lok Sabha elections due next year and assembly elections in five states, including Bharatiya Janata Party-ruled Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh, this year.
In the three decades since reservation of seats for women in panchayati raj institutions was introduced, the country saw women dismantling gender barriers to take the lead in the political field at the grassroots level and excel in it.
Faulting previous governments for not taking adequate measures to economically empower women in the country, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday said his government was constantly creating an environment in which women self-help groups can connect villages with prosperity as he released Rs 1,625 crore as capitalisation support fund to over four lakh such groups. In a virtual interaction with the women self-help groups (SHGs) under the "Aatmanirbhar Narishakti se Samvad" (dialogue with self-reliant women) initiative, Modi said in a changing India, opportunities are increasing for women to move forward. The movement of woman SHGs has intensified in the last 6-7 years with over 70 lakh of them working across the country, a figure over three times more than earlier, he said, adding over eight crore women are connected with these groups.
Official panel points to bid deficiencies in rural job guarantee, pensions, housing and other programmes.
The prime minister will be part of the launch of several development initiatives on his birthday.
Each bottle of pickle that leaves FarmDidi, headed to a consumer, has a little kahani behind it -- it's linked to the tale of a life, the life of a simple, striving village woman who created it, and that's what gives Manjari Sharma satisfaction and happiness.
Rural budget set to increase; likely to enhance market linkages for agri commodities
But the measures, particularly in agriculture, may not be enough to revive the sector and double the farm income, says S Mahendra Dev.
A programme that endeavours to graduate the poorest people could have seminal implications for Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government.
Elections are not won or lost by expounding on such macro-economic matters. For the aam admi, what matters in manifestos are promises that will improve their quality of life, notes Vinayak Chatterjee.
Indian billionaires saw their combined fortunes more than double during the COVID-19 pandemic, and their count shot up by 39 per cent to 142, while the wealth of the ten richest is enough to fund school and higher education of children in the country for 25 years, a new study showed on Monday. In its annual inequality survey released on the first day of the World Economic Forum's online Davos Agenda summit, Oxfam India further said that an additional one per cent tax on the richest 10 per cent can provide the country with nearly 17.7 lakh extra oxygen cylinders, while a similar wealth tax on the 98 richest billionaire families would finance Ayushman Bharat, the world's largest health insurance scheme, for more than seven years. The COVID-19 pandemic saw a huge rush for oxygen cylinders and insurance claims during the second wave last year.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Sunday pledged to make 30 million 'Lakhpati Didis', up from the 10 million rural women who have already achieved the feat. Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday released the BJP's manifesto for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections. The manifesto says the ruling party will continue the quarterly financial disbursements under the Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi (PM KISAN) yojana.
The plan could mature into either an umbrella programme for urban youths similar to the Garib Kalyan Rozgaar Abhiyaan or a modified urban-focused version of MGNREGS.
The situation could become more acute as millions of migrants who had returned to their villages during the lockdown come back to the towns for higher wages and better livelihoods.
Despite declining by three percentage points in 2022-23 (FY23) compared to FY19, Odisha's unemployment rate remains higher than the average in India.
"All of us can feel the pain of families of the Pulwama martyrs. We understand your anger," Modi said.
Talking about the Tablighi Jamaat congregation, Agarwal said, "If the Tablighi Jamaat incident had not taken place and we compare the rate of doubling -- that is in how many days the cases have doubled, we will see that currently it is 4.1 days (including Jamaat cases) and if the incident had not taken place and additional cases had not come then the doubling rate would have been 7.4 days."
Launching the scheme, Modi said during the nationwide lockdown, the talent from cities returned to villages and it will now give a boost to development of rural areas. The 'Garib Kalyan Rozgar Abhiyaan' will be implemented on a mission mode in 125 days in 116 districts of six states -- Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Jharkhand and Odisha -- that received the maximum numbers of migrant workers back.
'From March 2020 to November 2021, the combined wealth of the billionaires of this country has doubled.'
Economy to grow by 7.2-7.5 per cent in second half of current fiscal, says FM.
Describing north-east as the "gateway" to south-east asia, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday said his government has been pro-actively pursuing the 'Act-East Policy'
The government's largesse was widely expected after the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party lost power in the recent assembly polls in three Hindi heartland states, where rural distress was cited to be one of the reasons for the defeat of the saffron party.
The JD-U also accused the ruling BJP of having "authoritarian" tendencies and destabilising non-BJP governments in several states, including Delhi and Jharkhand besides Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra earlier.
The savings would be better spent and might actually reach the poor, says Rahul Khullar.
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