-Hindustan Times Under DBT system, beneficiaries are required to collect food subsidy in cash from their bank and then buy food grain from local ration shops at market price Septuagenarian Deventi Devi visited her bank, 6km from her village, thrice this month to withdraw her food subsidy credited by the government in her account under the Centre’s direct benefit transfer (DBT) scheme. She returned empty-handed each time because the bank said the...

-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...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: With cases of denial of hospital facilities being reported, UIDAI has reiterated that the Aadhaar Act clearly states that benefits cannot be denied due to absence of an Aaadhar number or failure of biometrics due to reasons such as old age or poor connectivity. In a statement, the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) asked government departments/ministries and state/UT governments to ensure that no essential service...

-The Economic Times BAREILLY / MEERUT (U.P.): Many of us might think that our lives can continue as usual since there is more than a month left to link Aadhaar with various financial accounts and documents. But did you know that there has been an increasing number of cases were people have been denied basic benefits because they do not have the 12-digit unique identity number. In a recent episode, according...

-The Economic Times blog Word has it that World Bank economists use “obviously fabricated” data from time to time. These are not Sitaram Yechury or Medha Patkar’s words, but those of Paul Romer, former chief economist of the World Bank, in a recent email exchange reported by Financial Times. Romer retracted them later, but this “may not end the controversy”, as The Economist mildly put it. This is not the first time...