Women-led and women’s rights organizations are on the frontlines of today’s humanitarian crises—but many are at risk of disappearing. As global needs rise due to conflict, climate change, and displacement, deep cuts to foreign aid are threatening organizations that provide life-saving services for women and girls. In March 2025, UN …
The design of public cash transfers involves a careful balancing of policy priorities and objectives. Variations in the rationale for a conditional cash transfer shape benefit amounts, coverage, duration of programme participation, targeting practices and the definition of conditionality. Drawing on the experience of low- and middle-income countries in Latin …
The current perception that cash transfers can replace public provision of basic goods and services and become a catch-all solution for poverty reduction is false. Where cash transfers have helped to reduce poverty, they have added to public provision, not replaced it. For crucial items like food, direct provision protects …
There is a case to be made for cash transfers replacing the sale of food through the public distribution system. This article argues that cash transfers offer many advantages over in-kind food transfers, and that their design can address potential pitfalls pointed out by critics. The more salient of such …
The National Food Security Bill, as drafted by the National Advisory Council, contains various reforms to reduce theft. However, the track record of previous legislation does not inspire confidence that the proposed reforms will be sufficient to ensure secure access to food for those who need it. This article spells …
The Government of India has announced that subsidies on fertilisers, kerosene and liquefied petroleum gas will be replaced by cash transfers to end users. A close examination of the objectives of the subsidies in fertiliser and kerosene and the implications of the shift raises some challenging questions. While there is …
This paper attempts to review the recent performance of the economy and lists the priorities and challenges for the Twelfth Plan. The Indian economy will enter the Twelfth Plan period in an environment of great promise, but the next five years will also be a period of major challenges. The …
India spends more on programs for the poor than most developing countries, but it has failed to eradicate poverty because of widespread corruption and faulty government administration, the World Bank said Wednesday.
The World Bank has asked policymakers in India to stop neglecting urban poverty and expand the scope of some rural flagship schemes to urban areas. It has called for a shift in focus in policy to address poverty as demographic changes and intense migration have dampened poverty reduction rates in …
In the hue and cry over minimum wages under NREGS, battle lines have been drawn between those who favour central government hiking minimum wage rates to the state minimum, and others asserting that the two must be delinked. While the former invoke
Eleven years after he came to power in 2000 and regularly refuting charges of numerous scams and scandals that rocked the image of his government, Orissa chief minister and BJD president Naveen Patnaik now finds himself in the dock. After the Supreme Court
Order of the Supreme Court of India in the matter of Centre for Environment & Food Security Vs Union of India & Others dated 12/05/2011 regarding proper implementation of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, 2005 and the schemes framed thereunder. Supreme Court directs all the State Governments …
Non-governmental organizations and civil society organizations from across the country, representing various constituencies and theoretical approaches, collectively welcome the effort of the Planning Commission of India to make the planning process more responsive to citizens’ concerns for the 12th Five Year Plan Approach Paper. We have seized this opportunity to …
A survey by the Indian government in 2002 to determine households below poverty line (BPL) left out many poor families. Nearly a decade later, the Union Ministry of Rural Development (MORD) is trying to set the wrong right. But it is unable to decide on the criteria for identifying poor …
A survey by the Indian government in 2002 to determine households below poverty line (BPL) left out many poor families. Nearly a decade later, the Union Ministry of Rural Development (MORD) is trying to set the wrong right. But it is unable to decide on the criteria for identifying poor …
Implementing agency of MGNREGS will have nothing to do with audit process The Comptroller and Auditor General of India will henceforth annually audit the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) accounts and the report would be tabled in Parliament. Under the notified new social audit rules of MGNREGS, …
Jammu, Minister for Rural Development, Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs Ali Mohammad Sagar has said that State and Divisional level monitoring cells would be set up to ensure speedy and transparent implementation of MGNREGA. The Minister was addressing the 3rd State Employment Guarantee Council meeting here today. Calling for effective …
The government has finally notified the draft rules empowering the Comptroller and Auditor General of India to audit the flagship Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme. Under the rules, the director, local fund audit or a chartered accountant empanelled with the CAG, shall audit the schemes under the MGNREGA. …
Reetika Khera in "The UID Project and Welfare Schemes" has opened a new debate on the promise of the project of providing each Indian citizen a unique identification (UID) card. Specifically she takes issue with the claim that the UID will facilitate the implementation of welfare schemes.
