-Outlook Aam Aadmi Party today alleged that the Budget presented by Finance Minister P Chidambaram was a "clever attempt to mislead" public ahead of elections as it offered little remedy for the key problems facing the Indian economy. In a statement, the party claimed that the common man has reasons to feel "disappointed, if not cheated" with the Budget. "The Union Budget presented by the Finance Minister is a clever attempt to mislead...

-The Times of India Leaders of four Left parties "CPM, CPI, RSP and Forward Bloc" on Tuesday handed over a memorandum signed by four crore people demanding effective food security law to the prime minister. Left leaders, including Prakash Karat (CPM), S Sudhakar Reddy (CPI), Debabrata Biswas (Forward Bloc) and T J Chandrachoodan (RSP) met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and urged him to bring a food security legislation in the ongoing budget...

-The Economic Times The Direct Benefits Transfer (DBT) scheme commenced with the initial rollout in 20 districts covering seven scholarship schemes. Another 23 districts will be covered by March this year. The intention is to link all government benefits to Aadhaar-based identification of beneficiaries and to channelise the cash benefits through Aadhaar-enabled bank accounts. Irrespective of the merits of translating some benefits delivered in kind like in PDS into their cash-equivalent, for...

-Tehelka The National Food Security Act is probably going to undergo many changes before it is presented in Parliament. But everyone seems to agree that it’s time has come Towards the end of January, a few days after Republic Day and a little over a week after the Congress’s conclave in Jaipur, large half-page advertisements appeared in major newspapers: “Celebrating the 63rd year anniversary of our Republic by putting food on everybody’s...

-Live Mint In Parliament address, Mukherjee says direct cash transfers will cut leakages and bring benefits to the poorest Acknowledging that growing aspirations, particularly among the youth, are going largely unmet, the government has signalled a policy makeover, including undertaking “difficult decisions”. The Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) also indicated that it was looking to the direct benefit transfer scheme based on the Aadhaar or unique identity system to restore the feel-good factor...