-The Hindu   The reassuring message in the Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana is that in pursuing its economic objectives, the government wants to accord an important role to the public sector even while relying on market mechanisms The goal is hard to achieve. It is costly and unviable. It will create huge stresses in the banking system. The Narendra Modi government's Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana (JDY), an ambitious scheme for financial...

-The Indian Express At a high-level meeting in July itself, Modi set a target of one billion Aadhaar enrolments "at the earliest". Putting to rest speculation about the fate of the previous UPA government's most ambitious scheme - issuing Aadhaar cards and linking all benefits to this unique identity - the NDA government has given it a decisive push with Prime Minister Narendra Modi himself taking a keen interest in its rollout. At...

-The Indian Express A government shorn of Western educated ministers could change the status quo. Since 1947, Indians have not spoken out so strongly and clearly for a completely new brand of people running government. Mercifully, there are no ministers educated abroad. Thankfully, none of them has been brainwashed at Harvard, Stanford, Cambridge, the World Bank or the IMF, subtly forcing expensive Western solutions on typically Indian problems at the cost of...

-Live Mint The world's largest social security net deserves better, especially given its potential to contribute to strengthening the foundations of an inclusive, green economy Nitin Gadkari is a man in a hurry to dismantle the edifice of rights-based legislation enacted by the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government. He has already set in motion steps to emasculate the historic land acquisition law passed by Parliament enthusiastically in September 2013. He has set...

-The Hindustan Times The Independent Evaluation Office (IEO), which recommended the scrapping of its parent body, the Planning Commission, has found that its funding is being quietly choked. The IEO is an attached office of the Commission and receives money from it for conducting evaluation studies on different programmes of the government. On June 23, the IEO bit the hand that fed it: It made a report to the prime minister's office (PMO)...