The Union cabinet has approved a bill to rename the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) and increase the number of work days under the scheme.
After the last Budget's announcement of a major tax relief for those earning an annual salary of less than Rs 12 lakh, there is not much that individuals can look forward to in the forthcoming Budget, points out A K Bhattacharya.
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.
AIADMK general secretary Edappadi K Palaniswami has asserted that alliances are formed only at the time of elections and declined to categorically say if his party would align with the BJP for the 2026 Assembly polls. Palaniswami met with Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Tuesday and brought to his attention several issues faced by Tamil Nadu, including the need for funds release, the implementation of the Godavari-Cauvery river linking plan, and a probe into the "TASMAC scam." He said that while the party would decide on an alliance at the time of the election, he did not rule out a tie-up with the BJP.
With its age-old fascination for education, southern states have done better than the North. Start-ups, IT hubs, and industry majors setting up shop have changed the face of the South. Nearly 79% of global offices set up by international conglomerates in India are in the South. Almost 46% of tech unicorns are from the South. The GDP per person in the South is 4.2 times higher than the North. None of these indicators can be ignored by any central government, whatever the political compulsions, notes Ramesh Menon.
Condolences have poured in from across the globe, including from the United States, Canada and Sri Lanka following the demise of former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
In her Budget speech, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Tuesday underlined the need for collaboration between the Centre and states to take up the next-generation reforms covering land, labour, capital and entrepreneurship. As far as revenue share goes, the government has projected to give about 32.5 per cent of central taxes to states during FY25, against the 15th Finance Commission's recommendation of 41 per cent, according to the Union Budget estimate.
With the fiscal deficit target staring at the government, the FY25 Budget has limited expenditure options, points out A K Bhattacharya.
Few finance ministers announce any taxation measure that could upset the stock market. Ms Sitharaman decided to take that risk, observes A K Bhattacharya.
Buoyancy in the real estate sector along with improved construction activities created jobs and facilitated the return of migrant workers to cities, the Economic Survey for 2022-23 tabled in Parliament on Tuesday said. This assumes significance in view of loss of jobs due to lockdown restrictions imposed in various parts of the country from time to time amid different waves of pandemic since March 2020. The survey points towards sustained recovery in the economic activities during 2022-23 fiscal year.
'Generating employment requires a shift in policy.' 'If not, the country will face economic, social and political challenges in the coming years.'
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman is likely to step up efforts to boost consumption and rural economy while keeping inflation under check when she presents her sixth straight Budget on February 1. Experts said one way to boost consumption is to put more money in the hands of people, and one of the possible ways of doing it is by reducing the tax burden through tinkering with tax slabs or increasing the standard deduction. Another proposal is related to increasing the funds under the rural employment guarantee scheme MGNREGA and higher payout for farmers.
Naveen Patnaik is known as an "absentee landlord" who needs bureaucrats like Pandian to run his government.
The Union government is projected to share about 32 per cent of central taxes with states during the financial year 2024-25 against the 15th Finance Commission's recommendation of 41 per cent. The Revised Estimates (RE) for FY24, too, show a similar share of states in the central taxes at 32 per cent. In absolute terms, however, there has been an increase in the amount devolved to states compared to the Budget Estimates (BE) for FY24 at Rs 11 trillion.
The government is committed to provide Rs 100 a day as wages under National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme, said finance minister Pranab Mukherjee.
But the government will present a second tranche of Supplementary Demands for Grants during the Budget session of Parliament in February, when it can seek additional spending.
'Elections are fought to win.' 'In our party, the leadership takes the final decision, and our leaders are very clear about it.'
Political parties and individuals cannot be prevented from making poll promises aimed at fulfilling the constitutional mandate and the term 'freebie' should not be confused with genuine welfare measures, the Supreme Court said on Wednesday.
India's post-pandemic recovery appears to be shaping up like the letter K, widening the inequality among states. The last part of the series captures the rising rural distress, as seen through the prism of MGNREGS demand. The pandemic appears to have exacerbated rural distress in the poorest states.
Youth unemployment (ages 15 to 29) is higher than the national average of 12.4 per cent in Telangana (14.2 per cent) and Rajasthan (13 per cent), followed by Chhattisgarh (6.7 per cent) and MP (6 per cent).
False and acrimonious debates such as Modi versus Manmohan might allow for victories that are political and partisan. But the real loser is the nation, India and Bharat, notes Arvind Subramanian, former chief economic advisor to the Modi government in its first term.
The top court's remark came while setting aside an order of the Madras high court which directed the Tamil Nadu government to create the posts under the designation.
Will the new Congress government implement the five 'guarantees' that helped it in part to wrest power from the Bharatiya Janata Party in toto or will they now add a "conditions apply" clause?
The rural development ministry has asked NGO's to run the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme in in Naxal-hit areas.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi asserted on Wednesday that his government's action against corruption has made some people angry but he will not turn back in this fight against graft and nepotism, however big an alliance his rivals form against him.
The Bihar government has sacked 110 officials of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme from service for corruption.
Enthused by higher than expected GDP numbers in the fourth quarter of 2022-23, Chief Economic Adviser (CEA) V Anantha Nageswaran on Wednesday said India's economic growth may exceed the initial estimate of 6.5 per cent in the current fiscal and the country can look for another year of solid economic performance.
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.
Whether it was the MGNREGS or the NFSA or the Aadhaar-based DBT scheme for cash transfer, the Modi government has built on the basic architecture created by the Singh government. Policy makers in the Modi government, instead of discarding them as products of the previous political regime, worked on them, expanded their scope and reach, and used new tools to improve their performance, explains A K Bhattacharya.
Ramesh opposes Pawar's plan to provide cheap labour to farmers under NREGS.
Former Karnataka Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa on Sunday urged his successor D V Sadananda Gowda to immediately release Rs 200 crore for providing employment to people in drought-hit areas under National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme.
The pilot project would begin from South 24 Parganas district and be gradually extended to all other 18 districts of the state, Panchayat and Rural development minister Subrata Mukherjee said.
New Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh has, however, taken up the challenge on how to synchronise the employment guarantee programme with the ground realities.
NGOs have acquired a certain critical mass and are increasingly becoming powerful voices in public discourse.
State governments yet to act on sorting MGNREGA wage delays
China has sought information on India's poverty reduction programmes, including the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme, to beef up its own strategy.
The government has revised the wages for unskilled manual workers under the national rural employment guarantee scheme by indexing it to inflation, Rural Development Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh said.
US hopes to learn from these innovative and dynamic programmes in India.
The job guarantee scheme is set to provide food grain as part of wages.
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