-TheWire.in The Swaminathan Commission was clear in its recommendations, and the rationale offered by the NITI Aayog to rule out the use of comprehensive cost is dubious at best. Finance minister Arun Jaitley had announced in Budget 2018-19 that his “government has decided to keep MSP [minimum support price] for the all unannounced crops of kharif at least at one and half times of their production cost”. This announcement set off a flurry...
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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 »Rs 5-lakh family cover: Centre to call meeting of state health secys -Anil Sasi & Deepak Patel
-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...
More »Sustaining the Amma Unavagams (The Hindu)
-The Hindu Five years after the first canteen came up, the future of the pet project of the then Chief Minister Jayalalithaa hangs in balance due to reports of fall in patronage and mounting losses borne by civic bodies. Budgetary support and operational reforms may be necessary for a course correction Sekar. D was observing this newspaper’s team of reporters as he sat cross-legged on the tiled floor. Then, he abandoned his...
More »Troubles getting ration: At public hearing, some Aadhaar woes as people face fingerprint failure, slow server -Krishn Kaushik
-The Indian Express Since January, beneficiaries have been asked to authenticate their identity using fingerprints to avail foodgrain they are entitled to under the Food Security Act. New Delhi: “Agar machine hata di jaaye, toh bohot acha hai.” As 60-year-old Shanno Devi said these words, 200 people gathered at a hall in central Delhi broke into applause. “Public pareshaan hai,” she added. Devi was talking at a public hearing on Monday about the...
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