In a move aimed at a focussed targeting of subsidies for the country's poor, the government on Monday announced the setting up of an inter-ministerial task force under Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) chairman Nandan Nilekani. It will work out a suitable mechanism to provide direct subsidies on kerosene, cooking gas (LPG) and fertilizers for the intended beneficiaries. In a statement here, the Finance Ministry said the task force was set...

In a bid to check wasteful fuel and fertiliser subsidy and reach it to the intended beneficiaries , the government has set up a task force to suggest a suitable mechanism of direct transfer of subsidy to the consumers. The task force will be headed by Nandan Nilekani , Chairman, Unique Identification Authority of India ( UIDAI )) and has been asked to submit an interim report within four months....

In a reformist move long recommended by various economists and panels, the government has set up a task force to create a way to directly transfer cash to the ultimate beneficiaries of various subsidy schemes, which are, at best, messy and, at worst, ineffective. The task force will be headed by Nandan Nilekani, chairman of the Unique Identification Authority of India. A pilot will be rolled out in the next four...

There are many critics and sceptics with respect to the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme, which came into being because of political pressure that managed to overcome quite strenuous opposition from some of the most influential policy making circles. It is likely that much of this criticism is not really because of the declared reasons, like fiscal costs (which are thus far very little) and potential leakage. Rather,...

As the murder of Malegaon additional collector Yashwant Sonawane, allegedly by the oil mafia, once again highlights the illegal diversion of public distribution system (PDS) kerosene to the open market and industrial units, Punjab seems to have found its answer in Nandan Nilekani’s UID scheme, Adhaar. This March, as the state begins an enrollment drive to give its estimated 2.8 crore population a unique 12-digit identity, the number will also provide...