The state of welfare

Is the UPA government on social overdrive?

Employment bill passed

Amended version improves upon original, but not enough

Employment guarantee goes hi-tech

Power cut

Maharashtra's decentralisation plan gets derailed even before it can take off

India's National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme put on hold

Employment guarantee scheme brought to an abrupt halt

Sham, sham

A recent survey finds the food for work progamme mired in corruption

In Short

Think institution

The need of the hour is to decentralise drought management and think long-term

Testing time

Revisits by Down To Earth reporters to villages that undertook water harvesting offer some valuable lessons in drought management

Made to fail

Employment Guarantee Scheme, first of its kind drought relief scheme has had no impact on the drought-prone areas of Maharashtra in almost 30 …

Out of focus

The government's drought relief programmes are bound to fail in the long run. Even the Planning Commission acknowledges that funds for the …

Impotent plan?

In August 2005, the Indian Parliament passed the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (nrega). The latest avatar of state-financed employment …