-The Indian Express Raipur: In May 2010, Hindi TV channel Sahara Samay presented a five-point proposal to the public relations department of the Chhattisgarh government about covering government activities during 2010-11: 1. Two-minute special package: Sahara Samay will show the package 15 times a day during news bulletins. It will contain “CM’s speeches, government policies, and special news related to various departments.” Cost: Rs 3.28 crore per year at Rs 3,000 per...
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Complan, Saffola and Kellogg’s under scanner for misleading public -Avimuktesh Bhardwaj
-Down to Earth FSSAI initiates prosecution against manufacturers of 19 leading food brands for making unscientific claims about their products Whether it’s Complan or Horlicks, they claim to make a child taller and smarter. But their promises are not based on any scientific data. Now such food products in the Indian market have come under the scanner of Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) for making false health claims on the...
More »Cashing in-MK Venu
-The Indian Express The UPA’s cash transfer scheme — delivering over Rs.3.2 lakh crore in subsidies and welfare programmes to the poor, directly to their bank accounts — has raised fears in many quarters about the capacity of a rickety state apparatus to cope with messy implementation issues. Our collective self-confidence about being able to implement any new policy is so low today, we seem to be paralysed by the mere...
More »Socialism, Cash Down-Uttam Sengupta and Arindam Mukherjee
-Outlook Its ploy of Aadhar-hinged cash transfer may have won the Congress political points, but will it really be a game-changer? State-Wise 40% of the 22 crore Aadhar numbers are in Andhra Pradesh (4.7 crore) and Maharashtra (4 crore) 20% is what the two politically sensitive, Congress-ruled states account for of the 51 districts where DCT will be rolled out 55 lakh Aadhar numbers in TMC-run West Bengal. BJP-ruled Gujarat (57...
More »Subsidy schemes could delay direct cash transfer plan -Banikinkar Pattanayak
-The Financial Express The massive scale and complexity of major subsidy schemes are likely to delay the ambitious plan of limiting state subsidy on food, fertiliser and petroleum products only to the poor by directly transferring cash to their bank accounts using a unique identity number (Aadhaar). While other cash payments like pension, scholarship, wage under rural job guarantee scheme can be transferred directly to the beneficiary’s bank account, it is difficult...
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