-The Indian Express In the Union Budget 2018-19, an initial corpus of Rs 2,000 crore was provided for the NHPS that aims to provide medical cover of Rs 5 lakh to over 10 crore poor and vulnerable families. New Delhi: TO decide the specifics of the proposed National Health Protection Scheme (NHPS), the Centre has decided to call a meeting of state health secretaries shortly. Details of the scheme’s implementation — touted...
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Aadhaar that doesn't exclude -Ashok Kotwal & Bharat Ramaswami
-The Indian Express Biometric authentication by PDS dealers defeats the unique identity scheme’s purpose. An aborted scheme in Madhya Pradesh that relied on once-in-a-year authentication can curb exclusion errors. Aadhaar is in the news today partly because of security concerns and partly because of reports that the poor are unable to receive PDS rations because of failures in Aadhaar authentication. Here, we will focus on the latter with an eye to look...
More »Loan waiver to bonus payments, poll-bound states target farmers -Deep Mukherjee & Milind Ghatwai
-The Indian Express While Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara seeks to recover from the recent disastrous bypoll where the BJP lost two Lok Sabha seats and an assembly seat to the Congress, MP’s three-time CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan aims to mitigate three-time anti-incumbency. From crop loan and land revenue waivers to bonus payments and free crop storage, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh announced a slew of sops Monday targeting farmers and rural voters...
More »Rajasthan govt waives loans of up to Rs 50,000
-The Times of India JAIPUR: Close on the heels of BJP’s rout in parliamentary and assembly bypolls earlier this month, Rajasthan chief minister Vasundhara Raje on Monday announced a waiver for farm loans up to Rs 50,000 taken by small and marginal farmers. The waiver was part of the last budget of her government’s term. The sop to woo agitating farmers ahead of the assembly polls, scheduled for the end of...
More »Big Data, Large Concerns -Amba Kak & Jason Schultz
-The Indian Express Consent and accountability should be at the core of the new privacy law. The Supreme Court recently affirmed a fundamental right to privacy. The government is now moving to enact a data privacy law, the Justice Shri Krishna Committee has released a comprehensive report and the consultation process is coming to a close. Multiple legal challenges against Aadhaar — many involving citizens’ privacy — are being heard before...
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