-The Telegraph The Centre is poised to launch a pilot project to study the delivery of food subsidy through direct cash transfer, a proposed system that civil society groups feel will end up inconveniencing the poor beneficiaries. The food and consumer affairs ministry will start the pilot scheme in the six Union territories next month, a top government source told The Telegraph. Now, households buy food grains at subsidised rates (called the “central...

-The Hindustan Times Gujarat may have a small Muslim population but the state, according to the Planning Commission, contributes significantly to the high incidence of poverty among the community nationally. In the 12th Plan approved by the National Development Council, the plan panel lists Gujarat along with UP, Bihar, West Bengal and Assam as the states accounting for high urban and rural poverty ratio among Muslims. “Poverty ratio for Muslims was 33.9%...

The total expenditure on central schemes for the poor and on the major subsidies exceeds the states' share of central taxes. These schemes are chronic bad performers due to a culture of immunity in public administration and weakened local governments. Arguing that the poor should be trusted to use these resources better than the state, a radical redirection with substantial direct transfers to individuals and complementary decentralisation to local governments...

-The Indian Express Can wages paid to NREGA workers from scheduled castes be counted as money spent on SCs’ welfare? The Rural Development Ministry believes it can, but Social Justice and Empowerment Minister Kumari Selja doesn’t buy the argument. She has shot off a letter to the Planning Commission, questioning the rationale of including Rs 10,000 crore of NREGA funds in the SC sub-plan, under which a mandated 16.2% — the percentage...

A 42-page study put out in January by Prayas, a noted Pune-based energy analysis group dissects India’s coal sector, raising a range of policy issues that need to be urgently addressed. The mineral forms the basis of over half of India’s, though supply to industry is increasingly an issue, even as the sector is beset with big-ticket corruption and environmental violations. Some of the challenges of the coal sector raised by...