Very Short Question and Answers - The Role of the Government

The main role of the government is to act as a guardian for the country, ensuring the country's growth benefits everyone, not just a few rich people.

Private companies avoid providing certain basic services because these services are not profitable for them.

Examples include building schools and hospitals in rural areas and providing electricity to remote villages.

Public welfare refers to the government providing essential services for everyone, even if it is not profitable, for the benefit of society.

The government ensures inclusive growth by enacting rules and laws for fair play and running schemes to help poor and weaker sections of society.

PDS is a system through which the government provides subsidized food like wheat, rice, and sugar via ration shops so that no one goes hungry.

The government provides scholarships to students from poor families or marginalized communities to help them continue their studies.

The government runs healthcare programs and missions specifically to help poor mothers and children.

Workers in the unorganised sector include farm labourers, street vendors, and others with no job security, low wages, and no benefits.

Government intervention is important because these workers are often exploited, lack job security, and have low wages, so laws and schemes are needed to protect them.

MGNREGA stands for Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act.

The main aim of MGNREGA is to provide a safety net for rural people by guaranteeing wage employment and reducing poverty.

MGNREGA gives every rural household the legal right to demand work from the government and obligates the government to provide it within 15 days.

The government guarantees at least 100 days of wage employment to each rural household every year under MGNREGA.

Typical MGNREGA work includes digging ponds, building roads, planting trees, and constructing irrigation canals.

MGNREGA workers are paid the official minimum wage, often directly credited to their bank accounts.

Disguised unemployment is when more people are working on a job (like a small farm) than actually needed, so some are effectively not contributing to production.

MGNREGA provides an alternative source of income and work for rural people who would otherwise be underemployed or idle, especially during the agricultural off-season.

A farmer and his sons, who do not have enough farm work, can get paid work building a road in their village under MGNREGA, thus earning money and creating community assets.

MGNREGA provides job security, reduces rural poverty, and creates useful assets like roads and ponds in villages.