-First Post If we are willing to believe the best practice examples of cash transfers from Brazil and Philippines, and trust the UPA on the fact that their cash-for-subsidy is going to be all hunky-dory, we also have a right to believe Sitaram Yechury’s concerns about the fancy plan. According to the CPM leader, the cash transfer is a ploy by the government to dismantle the PDS and systematically reduce subsidies. “This is...

-The Times of India The Congress moved with alacrity on Tuesday to put the stamp of its "hand" on 'direct cash transfers', calling it an election promise fulfilled and lining up Rahul Gandhi to lead the celebrations in the build-up to the launch of what it sees as a "game-changing" scheme. Finance minister P Chidambaram and rural development minister Jairam Ramesh chose the Congress party platform to announce the launch of the...

-The Telegraph Srinagar: If appetite for capital punishment has been whetted in the country, Padshah Begum’s experience today should serve as a timely note of caution. The 60-year-old lady in Srinagar received word this afternoon that Delhi High Court has taken her son off death row because “serious lapses” marked the police investigation into a blast in the capital in 1996. She is no stranger to such news: two years ago, her eldest...

-The Hindu For any law to truly liberate those trapped in manual scavenging, their numbers must first be established by a comprehensive survey Everybody declares with a full heart, and in a low voice, that it is a national shame. From Manmohan Singh and Pratibha Patil to Mukesh Ambani and Aamir Khan, the last mentioned a new convert to the Dalit cause, there is no dearth of people queuing up to take...

-IANS Nearly 71 per cent of India's elderly aged between 60 to 80 years are compelled to work, said a survey conducted by United Nation Population Fund (UNFPA) India. The survey, partnered with many other organisations, noted that 71 per cent elderly work due to economic necessity and not by choice, and that there is a close link between current work participation and poverty and illiteracy. The survey was done in seven...