-The Indian Express The minister said that the proposal would require amendments to existing laws and is “under the consideration of the government.” The government is considering a proposal to link electoral roll with Aadhaar with a view to “curb the menace of multiple enrolment of the same person at different places”, Minister for Law and Justice Ravi Shankar Prasad informed Lok Sabha in a written reply on Wednesday. “Electoral roll database system...

-The Indian Express Governments can learn much on how to construct a social welfare system for farmers from Odisha's KALIA scheme for DIS. The recent farmer agitation has brought the issue of farmer distress front and centre in the public consciousness. The time seems ripe to find new solutions to the structural challenges facing farmers. One promising step is the shift from non-targeted agriculture subsidies towards direct income support (DIS). A key...

-The Hindu A NITI Aayog paper has recommended reduction in National Food Security Act coverage. Once the new census data is available, the Centre may consider revising the number of people who get subsidised foodgrains under the National Food Security Act, Food Secretary Sudhanshu Pandey said on Friday. He insisted there is no proposal under consideration as yet, but said the Food Ministry was having conversations on a NITI Aayog paper on...

-Down to Earth The Japanese government’s own figures reveal this, the organisation says in a report to mark 10 years of the disaster Just 15 per cent of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Plant’s core area in Japan has been decontaminated a decade after it suffered a catastrophic triple reactor meltdown March 11, 2011, according to a report by non-profit Greenpeace International. An overall average of 15 per cent of the Special Decontamination Area...

When a massive sum of public money is spent on a programme like Mahatma Gandhi Rural Employment Guarantee Programme (MGNREGA)--a demand-driven programme, there is likelihood of financial misappropriations and mismanagement. Thankfully there are checks and balances in the rural employment guarantee legislation to counter such malpractices. It is worth noting that the total allocation under the Mahatma Gandhi Rural Employment Guarantee Programme (MGNREGA) for 2020-21 was Rs. 1,11,500.00 crore (R.E.), up...