Sunday, March 31, 2013

MNREGA: My View


MNREGA is flagship programme of government of India and if implemented in letter and spirit then this law has potential to change, alter and revolutionize the rural quarter. The MNREGA is a flagship programme of the Government of India that guarantees employment to one adult member of the family for minimum hundred days in rural areas. Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) is essentially demand driven scheme which provides employment to labour. With implementation of MNREGA 2.0, it is aspired that drawbacks of earlier times will be curtailed, minimized, and will be implemented in letter and spirit.
A basis of starting of NREGA is “development economics” and can be called as “Keynesian Economics”. UPA I, came to power on slogan of “aam aadami” and had support of Communist Parties, enacted this act which essentially based on welfare principle. The Ministry of Rural Development’s (MORD) budget has increased nearly 3-fold since FY 2006-07. In FY 2012-13, MORD allocations account for 14% of GOI’s budget. In FY2012-13, MGNREGA allocations account for 36% of total MORD budget. Recently Government has announced that MNREGA will be base of second green revolution. This underlines the pivotal role of this act in all welfare schemes.

 “Ragnar Nurkse, had pointed out that capital starved over-populated countries could build “social capital” in a big way by employing the surplus labour on a variety of projects. He had listed schemes concerning irrigation, drainage, roads, railways, housing, etc. In his view, the only danger was the onset of inflation caused by the increased demand for food and other wage goods,”[1] is written by P.S.APPU is his article on MNREGA in The Hindu. India has surplus and cheap labour which by this act is used for different productive purposes such as WBM road, digging of ponds, irrigation works and plantation. These activities are creating different assets in rural areas.Thus MNREGA is the way by which employment can be generated in rural areas with durable assets. It is often claimed by critics that MNREGA is nothing but “white elephant” and public money is spend and thus money like any other social security scheme is siphoned off to large extent. On other hand, supporters of this act, ideologically left wing, always support this scheme as panacea, cure and solution for all ills of rural India.  

Monday, March 11, 2013

Facing Changed Pattern of UPSC:-


At last much waited change has been reality and thus years of speculations are ended. But now aspirants are more confused, and thinking that years of preparation are now rendered futile and unproductive.
Let me assure that your years of preparation are not wasted and will help you preparation in coming days. One should take this change in positive way, as thinking of past will hamper your studies.
One must also remember that “Change is the only constant”, and species (In our case aspirants) who swiftly adapts to changed conditions service. (Essentially UPSC also follows law of Darwin….survival of the fittest).
But one thing has been amply clear by UPSC is that general studies (GS) will carry maximum marks and aspirant has to focus more on current events, issues of national importance, history and geography in context of India and so on.
Coming years will make things more clear and those who have long term plans can employ good strategy of “wait and watch”!