-Economic and Political Weekly We support cash transfers such as old-age pensions, widow pensions, maternity entitlements and scholarships. However, we oppose the government’s plan for accelerated mass conversion of welfare schemes to Unique Identification Authority (UID)-driven cash transfers. This plan could cause havoc and massive social exclusion. We demand the following: (1) No replacement of food with cash under the public distribution system (PDS). (2) Immediate enactment of a comprehensive National Food Security...

-The Times of India UPA-II's flagship direct cash transfer scheme has run into rough weather following warnings of a potential scam in the making, and evoking concerns of serious delays. Government functionaries have raised the red flag about how cash would be finally disbursed to beneficiaries and whether the National Population Register (NPR) would come into play in some states instead of the Unique Identification (UID) number to identify the end-users. Senior...

-Frontline The Congress-led UPA seems to be betting heavily on the cash transfer scheme as a means to return to power in the next general elections. DECEMBER 2012 may go down in history as the month when the Congress party created its own “India Shining” moment: the moment when it started believing its own hype, and even deluded itself into thinking that its perception was so widely shared that it could provide...

-Outlook Jaipur: Describing the proposed Direct Cash Transfer scheme a 'pure magic' that brings a big responsibility on banks for its implementation, Finance Minister P Chidambaram today asked bankers to work with the government to make the scheme a success. "Through this unique benefit transfer scheme, money when it is released, will instantaneously be credited in the bank account of the beneficiary, leaving no scope for corruption and pilferage. That is why...

-PTI Finance Minister P Chidambaram on Friday asked banks to gear up for implementation of the ambitious cash transfer scheme, which seeks to transfer money directly into beneficiary accounts in 51 districts from January 1. "There is lot of work to be done from January 1. There are huge burden, huge responsibility going to fall on your shoulders. It is banks that have to make cash transfer scheme successful. I know you...