-Down to Earth Biometric-based unique identity or Aadhaar is leading to huge problems for people working for the rural employment guarantee scheme and for others receiving welfare benefits. Not only have enrolments been done shoddily but the experience of the pilot projects shows that it is almost impossible to authenticate the work-hardened fingerprints of the poor, find Latha Jishnu and Jyotika Sood. Besides, there is the overwhelming issue of deficient online...

-The Times of India The number of suicide by farmers has gone down in the country, the government stated in the Lok Sabha. Minister of state for finance Namo Narain Meena informed the Lok Sabha during Question Hour that due to several measures taken by the government the cases had fallen. "As far as farmer suicides are concerned, there has been a fall in the numbers in Andhra Pradesh, also in Karnataka and...

-Reuters KHAMMAM (India): It was a deal struck almost 40 years ago by a poor, illiterate Indian farmer, driven by desperation after a drought wiped out his crops and left his family close to starvation. The agreement: 10 acres of land, the size of four soccer pitches, for a mere 10 kg (22 lbs) of sorghum grains. "My father-in-law pawned the land for food," said Kowasalya Thati, lifting the hem of...

Difficult times call for difficult measures. Pushed into a corner by an unsustainable fiscal deficit and various sectors and programs (including the proposed food security legislation) screaming for a greater share of the budget pie, the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government in India has been forced to do what it might not have otherwise—reduce its marquee job guarantee scheme’s allocation in a big way for the first time.  In one...

Central bank sold its majority stake in Oct 2010; change will ensure entire equity  is held by the govt The government will amend a law governing the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (Nabard) to allow the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to sell its 1% stake in the development lender. The central bank sold its majority stake in the lender to the government in October 2010. The government owns 99%...