-TheWire.in Declining budget allocation and actual expenditure on schemes geared towards agriculture, sanitation and housing have brought the government's seriousness to the cause of rural welfare under suspicion. direct benefit transfer has dominated the majority of the discussion on the Interim Budget in the context of agriculture. However, in order to properly understand the seriousness of the government to the cause of farmers and related issues of rural development, we should also...

-The Indian Express He claimed that around 12 crore farmers would benefit from the scheme and an amount of Rs 75,000 crore would be given under this scheme every year. Gorakhpur: DESCRIBING THE Congress, SP and BSP as “maha-milawati (highly adulterated)” and accusing them of “cheating farmers” for political gains, Prime Minister Narendra Modi Sunday launched the Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi Yojna (PM-KISAN) with the promise of including those who...

-The Indian Express The Centre plans to transfer Rs 4,000 to small and marginal farmers under the PM-Kisan scheme by the first week of April, well before the Lok Sabha polls start. The transfer of Rs 2,000 to the bank accounts of farmers will commence from February 24 under the income support scheme and preparations are on to cover as high as 1 crore farmers on the first day of the...

-The Hindu The top-down, rushed approach of the government in reaching out to farmers is likely to end in failure This year’s Interim Budget is being regarded as a big spread for farmers. The government announced its decision to transfer Rs.6,000 every year directly to 12 crore farmers holding cultivable land up to 2 hectares through the Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi (PM-KISAN) scheme. While this is a progressive step, is it...

-IDRonline.org Replacing India's Public Distribution System with direct benefit transfers will improve efficiency, but shouldn't be implemented at the cost of individual choice. The Public Distribution System (PDS) is India’s flagship food security programme but also suffers from well-known inefficiencies. Even official government estimates suggest that a large share of public spending on the PDS does not reach intended beneficiaries. Thus, the idea of Direct Benefits Transfer (DBT) in lieu of subsidised...