-Livemint.com Bringing the bulk of the population under a common system of entitlements is the way to reduce leakages The reliability of the public distribution system (PDS) has improved greatly in a number of States that have a reputation for endemic corruption. In States such as Bihar, Chhattisgarh and Odisha, where leakages were as high as 50-90% in 2004-05, they are now of the order of 10-25%. This pattern, based on National...

-The Times of India PM Narendra Modi in his speech in Parliament on Friday underlined how his government had decided to transfer a much larger share of resources to the States in line with Finance Commission recommendations, though it didn't have to. The finance minister in his budget speech repeatedly referred to the issue and the reduced "fiscal space" he had. The budget numbers reveal, however, that the States won't really...

-The Telegraph New Delhi: The Supreme Court has asked the ministries of social justice and health and family welfare to respond to a plea to set up homes for senior citizens across the country because "over-ambitious" children were increasingly neglecting their aged parents. Justices Madan B. Lokur and U.U. Lalit, however, refrained from issuing notices to the Centre, States and Union territories on three other pleas: a national commission for senior citizens,...

-The Telegraph New Delhi: Finance minister Arun Jaitley has slashed the overall allocation for Dalits and tribals in his budget compared with last year's proposals in a trend critics fear could see the "last man" gradually becoming the "lost man". The media, too, came in for criticism for giving the "impression" that the country had no SC/ST citizens. Jaitley yesterday set aside Rs 30,851 crore for Scheduled Castes and Rs 19,980 crore for...

-The Telegraph New Delhi: Eight central schemes have been left to States following the Centre's decision to raise their share of federal taxes, but this has left the Union panchayati raj ministry almost jobless. The schemes de-linked from central support are: Backward Regions Grant Funds (BRGF) of the panchayati raj ministry; Rajiv Gandhi Panchayat Sashaktikaran Abhiyaan (RGPSA) of the panchayati raj ministry; E-governance...