-Livemint The development economist on the Modi government's initiatives and his stand on them, and MGNREGS The Narendra Modi-led government should consider replacing inefficient subsidies with a basic monthly income for all citizens, says Pranab Bardhan , emeritus professor of economics at the University of California at Berkeley. Bardhan, who recently sparred with economists Jagdish Bhagwati and Arvind Panagariya in a debate over the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS),...

-The Telegraph Calcutta: Private companies will be able to buy farm produce directly from farmers in Bengal. But the widely-anticipated whoop of exultation from Indian industry over the amendment in the state's agri-marketing act was somewhat muted because of the lack of clarity on the issue of contract farming and the absence of clear guidelines on whether the state government would provide incentives and help in the acquisition of land for private...

-The Telegraph Guwahati: Apart from Tripura and Sikkim, enrolment for Aadhaar cards remains very low in the northeastern states, with Assam at the bottom of the list. According to figures available with the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), which handles the Aadhaar project, as on November 30, 2014, the percentage of enrolment against the total population was abysmally low in Assam - 0.3 per cent. The trend is not much better in...

-The Hindu Terming the move to scrap the kerosene subsidy "a shameless attack on the poor and downtrodden," the CPI demanded that the subsidy on the fuel remain. On Friday, The Hindu reported that the Finance Ministry was planning to take forward the previous government's policy of phasing out subsidised kerosene. "Gas supply is very inadequate and sold in black markets. Some States becoming 100 per cent electrified and kerosene-free is a big...

-PTI   Nagpur: The six Vidarbha districts, which are most prone to farmer suicides, will get priority in allocation of solar pumps to overcome the power crisis in the region, Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis said on Thursday. "The state government has decided to set up five lakh solar pumps (for irrigation purpose) in the first phase and necessary global tenders will be floated later this month. Farmers in the suicide-prone districts in...