-Press Information Bureau/ Ministry of Finance   The Economic Survey 2013-14 presented by the Finance Minister Shri Arun Jaitely has asked policy makers to design and execute development strategies targeting the young population that was approximately 58 per cent in 2001 and will increase to more than 64 per cent in 2021. The Government has to take timely action to make people healthy, educated and adequately skilled. Social-sector expenditure Expenditure on social services...

-The Indian Express UIDAI: PM wants 100 cr enrolment at earliest, linking Aadhaar to passports, benefits. Putting to rest speculation about the fate of the UPA government's flagship Aadhaar project and the Direct Benefits Transfer scheme, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday sought a 100-crore enrolment target under Aadhaar at the "earliest", also asking officials to look into linking passports with its data. The Prime Minister also gave a decisive push to all...

-Live Mint The focus on implementation constraints is welcome; weak implementation has long been the Achilles heel of MGNREGS The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) faces an uncertain future. Statements from the government suggest that the scheme is set for a major revamp with infrastructure creation as its core objective. There are also rumours of a possible scaledown to backward regions. For the moment, however, the only concrete proposal...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) has punched holes in the Sheila Dikshit-led Congress government's claim of having provided basic services in 895 unauthorized colonies in the capital, touted as a major achievement of Dikshit's tenure, for which it spent more than Rs 3,000 crore between 2007 and 2013. Providing these basic services - sewer lines, water connections, roads and drainage - was mandatory before legalizing...

Two political leaders from rival camps, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and former Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh, have brought the spotlight on rural sanitation and have rooted for defecation-free India by investing in toilet construction on war footing. But a recent study by a group of eminent development economists led by Prof. Dean Spears-a visiting economist at the Delhi School of Economics - has concluded that when it comes to...