-The Hindustan Times The editor, a liberal man, is taken aback by my question. "I don't hire people on the basis of their caste but their ability," he informs me when I ask how many Dalits he has in his newsroom. Nearly 70 years after Independence, my question should have been irrelevant. But a caste survey by the National Council of Applied Economic Research (NCAER) and the University of Maryland, United States,...
More »SEARCH RESULT
Cash transfers can work better than subsidies -Guy Standing
-The Hindu Providing people with a modest basic income instead of subsidies would save public revenue With oil prices falling, it was perhaps a good time to fade out fuel subsidies. All subsidies are inefficient and distortionary, and most are regressive. The same could be said of costly public works schemes as well. By contrast, the debate on direct benefit transfers has moved into a more sensible phase, with the posturing criticism of...
More »Study shows a dismal 1.6% elderly are covered by health insurance plans -Sushmi Dey
-The Times of India NEW DELHI: Less than two of every 100 senior citizens in India are covered under public and private health insurance. This even as the population of elderly people is growing significantly and is forecast to hit almost 300 million in around two decades. The elderly population, aged more than 60 years, is projected to constitute 18.3% of the total population in 2050, up from 7.7% in 2010, according...
More »Andhra Pradesh identifies 2.28 mn farmer families for Phase I of loan waiver -Yogendra Kalavalapalli
-Livemint A total of 4.04 million Bank accounts have been cleared for loan waiver that will benefit 2.68 million farmers Hyderabad: Andhra Pradesh on Thursday finalized the norms for loan waiver for farmers and identified 2.28 million families as beneficiaries in the first phase of what it called a "debt redemption scheme". Loans will be written off in two phases, Andhra Pradesh chief minister N. Chandrababu Naidu said at a press briefing....
More »Bengal’s NREGA not a rosy picture -Sumanta Ray Chaudhuri
-The Hindustan Times According to NaBanna sources, a rough average of working days created under MGNREGA in Bengal during the last three years shows that the state ranks a lowly16th among all states on this count. On the basis of the same average during the last three years in terms of working days created during the same period, the figure for Bengal is much lower than the national average. During the period...
More »