-The Indian Express The UPA’s cash transfer scheme — delivering over Rs.3.2 lakh crore in subsidies and welfare programmes to the poor, directly to their bank accounts — has raised fears in many quarters about the capacity of a rickety state apparatus to cope with messy implementation issues. Our collective self-confidence about being able to implement any new policy is so low today, we seem to be paralysed by the mere...

-First Post Predictably, the recommendation by an experts’ panel appointed by the Supreme Court  - that trials of genetically modified (GM) crops should be halted for 10 years – has stirred a hornet’s nest. Such a moratorium would include ongoing trials and the court rejected it. This follows on the heels of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Agriculture’s 492-page report published in August which asked for the banning of GM food crops...

-Outlook The cap on subsidised LPG has the UPA regime worried Something Cookin’     There’s definitely going to be a relook at the six-subsidised-cylinders cap     Fear that LPG could cause a replay of the “onion impact” on 2014 polls     Pressure from all parties for increasing number of subsidised cylinders     Central government keen that states too share burden of extra cylinders      But that could be tricky when discussing Centre-state revenue-sharing Cylinder Pricing     Subsidised cylinders...

-First Post If we are willing to believe the best practice examples of cash transfers from Brazil and Philippines, and trust the UPA on the fact that their cash-for-subsidy is going to be all hunky-dory, we also have a right to believe Sitaram Yechury’s concerns about the fancy plan. According to the CPM leader, the cash transfer is a ploy by the government to dismantle the PDS and systematically reduce subsidies. “This is...

-Deccan Herald Cash transfer for public schemes is a “terrible lie”, said activists at a meeting held at Jantar Mantar on Wednesday. Communist Party of India (Marxist) leader Brinda Karat said that if one compared India with African countries, India would beat them in terms of poverty. “The government is not willing to tax business tycoons and is making the common man suffer by cutting down subsidies,” she said. Karat added that her...