However, 63 per cent Indians were "satisfied" with their standard of living
Around 40 per cent of the country is staring at drought-like conditions ahead of the monsoon as water levels have receded sharply.
It is true that, at 119 crore person-days, the employment created this year by the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MNREGS), the government's flagship programme, is tiny, a fraction of one percentage point of the total employment in the country.
This is her second intervention, seeking that work done under NREGA be treated as scheduled employment under the Minimum Wages Act.
The successful implementation of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act in parts of West Bengal has meant that fewer hands are available today to craft mud and straw into the idols that are central to goddess Durga's homecoming every autumn.
To make the implementation of its flagship programme for rural job guarantee more transparent, the Union government plans to constitute a group of eminent persons for its independent evaluation and monitoring.
"We have decided to identify 100 eminent citizens to report independently further on the progress of National Rural Employment Guarantee Act. The process is underway," Union minister for rural development C P Joshi told PTI.
The districts have provided 64 days of jobs under the 100-day job scheme as against the state average of 45 days.
Edtech firm Think and Learn, which owns Byju's brand, has not paid the July salary to employees as the company was unable to access its accounts due to a temporary stay granted by the Supreme Court on the NCLAT's decision, a top official said on Tuesday. On August 2, the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) approved the Rs 158.9 crore dues settlement with BCCI and set aside insolvency proceedings against Byju's.
President A P J Abdul Kalam on Monday suggested widening the ambit of Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (REGS), which primarily caters to manual labour, to include knowledge-based employment.
Under the plan being worked out, the labour component of the railway projects, which include the expansion of train lines or conversion of line gauge, would be funded from NREGS, as most of these projects require a large labour force and generate employment opportunities in rural areas.
Top officials from the US department of labour, organisers of the event, said the innovative 100-day rural employment guarantee scheme has been successful beyond the expectations of almost every one.
Aam Aadmi Party national convener Arvind Kejriwal on Monday promised free pilgrimage to various religious centres, including Ayodhya and Ajmer Sharif, if his party is voted to power in Goa in the assembly polls due in next February, which he said is a 'third guarantee' being given by AAP to Goans.
"The government is planning such a scheme (for urban poor)," minister of state for planning V Narayanasamy told reporters after assuming charge of his ministry in New Delhi on Wednesday. Under the NREGA scheme, which was launched in February 2006, the government provides 100 days of assured employment in a year to at least one person in a rural household.
Purulia district in West Bengal, where Congress leader Rahul Gandhi had said, people are worse off than those in Orissa's poorest Kalahandi area, has since turned the corner.
'Oh god, these workers will now spread the virus! Their only concern was to think about themselves.' 'The middle class was only concerned with flattening the curve of coronavirus and they were not bothered about how these workers live in one room with 10 people or 20 people.'
The Bihar government has sacked 110 officials of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme from service for corruption.
'If the total amount is spent, it will be highest Budget spend on MGNREGA.'
Here are the key highlights of the BJP's 'Sankalp Patra' for the 2024 parliamentary polls.
In an advisory to the states, ministry of rural development has also asked them to take effective measures to ensure that rural households receive their 'due entitlement' under the Act in the districts facing drought.
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.
RBI Governor has dismissed the notion that the rural employment guarantee programme is behind the massive spurt in wages in rural areas.
More people opting for work under the scheme would aggravate the shortage of workers in farms.
About 4.5 crore (45 million) households across the country benefited from the pioneering National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme in the financial year 2008-09, an increase of 32 per cent over the previous year, says the Economic survey.
'MGNREGA Sameeksha' is an anthology of all major research studies on performance of the programme that were published in academic journals or the stand-alone reports, but excluding the newspaper and magazine articles and opinion pieces, says Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh in his forward to the volume.
The SR Abhiyan meeting held in Jaipur, Rajasthan to mark the completion of seven years of MGNREGA decided that both pensions and Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act would be made electoral issues and political parties would be asked to take a stand before canvassing during the upcoming state and national elections.
Rejecting Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati's charge that his demand for Central Bureau of Investigation probe into Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act implementation was "politically motivated", Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh on Friday said he would not hesitate to recommend similar investigation even in Congress-ruled states.
NREGS has no place in the scheme of things that Kejriwal prescribes for the nation in his book Swaraj.
CEOs point fingers at rural job guarantee and related govt welfare schemes; say mechanisation an increasingly viable option.
The provision for additional Rs 10,500 crore (Rs 105 billion) was made in the first batch of supplementary demands for grant, which was approved by the Lok Sabha on Tuesday. The amount has been provided, "to meet the additional requirement of the National Rural Employment Guarantee scheme," stated the supplementary demand for grants.
Under attack from opposition parties and activists, the Bihar government has ordered the Crime Branch to probe the murder of RTI activist Ram Kumar Thakur, a police official said.
The party released its manifesto -- Samajwadi Vachan Patra -- for the coming assembly elections, shortly after the BJP released its own.
The government may raise the number of job days under the NREGA scheme to compensate rural households for loss of income due to a poor monsoon in large part of the country.
As per the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, if a person dies by accident arising out of and in the course of employment, implementing agency will have to pay Rs 25,000 as ex-gratia to the legal heirs of the victim and the same will be the case if someone becomes permanently disabled while working under the programme.
Bihar government has decided to use high-tech GPS enabled Android phones to monitor progress of the rural jobs scheme and keep a watch on the officials involved in the implementation of the scheme.
Government is targeting creation of around five crore (50 million) employment opportunities during the 10th plan period, Rajya Sabha was informed on Thursday.
Sex, violence, song or dance -- the monsoon serves multiple purposes in Hindi movies. With the onset of the rains, it's the perfect occasion to highlight all the cool, crazy reasons Bollywood uses it as an excuse for.
Put the poor who have voted for this government at the centre of reforms, says Sunita Narain.
