7.5 percent dip in active workforce under MGNREGS, says study (GS Paper 3, Economy)
Why in news?
- LibTech’s MGNREGS tracker for April-September 2023 provides a comparative analysis of data from preceding financial years (2021-22 and 2022-23) during the same time frame using the data available with the Union Rural Development Ministry.
- The data, read along with a net deletion of 80 lakh workers in the current financial year, paint a bleak picture for the scheme.
Details:
- The number of active workers under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) has dipped by 7.5%, according to a data analysis for the period April to September 2023 by LibTech India.
- The workforce has reduced from 15.49 crore in the previous financial year to 14.33 crore, as per data available till October 6, 2023.
Key findings:
- While the workforce is shrinking, there is an increased demand for work under the scheme. The report shows a 9% rise in person days (the total number of work days by a person registered under the rural jobs scheme in a financial year) in comparison with the previous financial year.
- In 2022-23, April to September, 172.24 crore person days were generated. During the same period this fiscal year, 188 crore days were generated.
- The report points out that this “intriguing trend” unfolds despite a reduction in the number of active job cards, workers, and a significant number of deletions.
State-level variations:
- The report has also noted State-level variations in employment trends. Fourteen States reported an increase, while there has been a decline in six States.
- A notable drop was observed in West Bengal (99.5%), where the scheme has been suspended by the Union government alleging large-scale corruption in its implementation.
Way Forward:
- These statistics indicate a significant contraction in the MGNREGS workforce, emphasising the need for a comprehensive analysis to identify the factors contributing to this decline and to formulate strategies for revitalising the programme’s participation.
About MGNREGS:
- The National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) was notified in September, 2005.
- In 2009, an amendment was made in the Act to change the name to Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA).
- Its objective is to provide at least 100 days of guaranteed wage employment in a financial year to every rural household whose adult members volunteer to do unskilled manual work.
- The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (Mahatma Gandhi NREGS) was created as directed in Mahatma Gandhi NREGA and the means to implement the Act so that the guarantee comes into effect.
- MGNREGS is a Centrally-Sponsored Scheme i.e., the scheme is jointly funded by the Central government and the State governments.
Studies provide insight into the internal structure of Mars
(GS Paper 3, Science and Technology)
Why in news?
- Mars’s liquid iron core is likely to be surrounded by a fully molten silicate layer, according to a pair of studies.
- These results offer a new interpretation of the interior of Mars, suggesting its core is smaller and denser than previously proposed.
Background:
- Seismological study of Mars to understand the interior of the red plant was carried out in 2019. The InSight Mars Lander used an instrument called the Seismic Experiment for Interior Structure (SEIS) to record seismic waves passing through Mars’s interior.
- Data from three years of quakes in Mars, including two seismic events caused by meteorite impacts, were used for the study.
Measurement analysis
- The analysis of measurements from the NASA InSight lander’s Seismic Experiment for Interior Structure (SEIS) project in 2021 suggested the presence of a large but low-density core, composed of liquid iron and lighter elements such as sulphur, carbon, oxygen and hydrogen.
Key findings:
- The new studies suggest that the core has a higher proportion of lighter elements than is feasible according to estimates of the abundances of these elements early in Mars’s formation history.
- They examined the latest batch of seismic signals in combination with first principles simulations and geophysical models to produce their estimates for the size and composition of the Martian core.
- The two studies found that the liquid iron-nickel core of Mars is surrounded by an approximately 150 km-thick layer of near-molten silicate rock, the top of which was previously misinterpreted as the surface of the core.
- This decrease in core radius implies a higher density than estimated in the earlier InSight study.
- These estimates can more easily be reconciled with our existing knowledge of chemical abundance on Mars.
Temperature
- The molten state of core suggests that its temperature must be at least 2,000Kelvin.
- This could be a sign that Mars had a turbulent interior following its formation, rather than a calmer one that more gently transported and shed heat to interplanetary space.
