-The Business Standard Reetika Khera Professor, Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi* “Aadhaar is being made de facto compulsory for welfare schemes. With two-thirds without Aadhaar, they are bound to be denied entitlements” There are three components of the government’s direct benefit transfer scheme — computerisation, extending banking services and linking the benefits with Aadhaar. The real game-changers are the first two, whereas Aadhaar-enabled transfers carry the risk of excluding current beneficiaries. The Central government has...

-The Indian Express National Commission for Protection of Child Rights chief Shantha Sinha Saturday opposed Women and Child Development Minister Krishna Tirath’s demand that the 17-year-old involved in the Delhi gangrape be tried as an adult. Sinha is also not in favour of “knee-jerk revisions” in the age provision in the Juvenile Justice Act that Tirath has hinted at. “Law is not made over one unique case. NCPCR is against any dilution of...

-The Indian Express The growing influence on policy issues of activists who call themselves “civil society” is a worrying trend and needs to be objectively analysed. Two recent policy pronouncements will illustrate how government seems to be yielding to their pressure. It is well established that absenteeism of teachers and poor quality of outcomes in government schools is the main factor behind the popularity of private schools with poor infrastructure that cater...

-PTI Identifying "unbridled influx" of migrants into Delhi as a major challenge, Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit today blamed the burgeoning population for putting existing infrastructure under strain and sought help from the Centre to deal with the situation. In her address at 57th meeting of the National Development Council, Dikshit said the national capital was grappling with "unparallelled and unprecedented" challenges and cited continuous influx of people from across the country as...

-The Hindu The Direct Benefits Transfer Initiative is the real tool against corruption that will ensure that the welfare state doesn’t degenerate into a farewell state We are grateful to Narendar Pani (Editorial page, “Cashing in on schemes for poor,” November 29, 2012) and Bharat Bhatti and Madhulika Khanna (Editorial page, “Neither effective nor equitable,” December 4, 2012) for starting a useful debate on the United Progressive Alliance government’s Direct Benefits Transfer...