-The Indian Express Cash in the hands of the poor can transform their lives. With bank accounts and an Aadhaar card for all becoming a reality, it is possible to transfer money directly to the poor and check middlemen who siphon away funds. Cash transfers (CTs) come in many forms. They may be conditional or unconditional, selective or non-selective, targeted or universal. Some types of CT are as susceptible to misuse as...

-The Hindu Kochi (Kerala): Majority of women in India do not use sanitary napkin because of the high cost of the product, says Arunachalam Muruganantham, an entrepreneur who was named one of the 100 most influential persons by Time magazine last year. The school dropout who started his life as a welder at Pudur in rural Coimbatore, has revolutionised the sanitary napkin making industry by developing an innovative machine that costs less...

-The Hindu Providing people with a modest basic income instead of subsidies would save public revenue With oil prices falling, it was perhaps a good time to fade out fuel subsidies. All subsidies are inefficient and distortionary, and most are regressive. The same could be said of costly public works schemes as well. By contrast, the debate on direct benefit transfers has moved into a more sensible phase, with the posturing criticism of...

-The Hindustan Times According to Nabanna sources, a rough average of working days created under MGNREGA in Bengal during the last three years shows that the state ranks a lowly16th among all states on this count. On the basis of the same average during the last three years in terms of working days created during the same period, the figure for Bengal is much lower than the national average. During the period...

-The Hindu Silicosis deaths in Rajasthan mines leave behind a trail of young widows The Karauli-Dholpur-Bharatpur mining belt in eastern Rajasthan, which produces the country's best quality red sandstone, also has the largest number of young widows, most of them below 40 years. The older ones were widowed some decades ago, and worse, young girls almost see their future unfold before them. The common link: they were married to miners who died of...