-The Times of India The government has said that it is not handing over monopoly rights to any entity for distribution of cash under the direct benefit transfer scheme. In response to a TOI article on December 30 ("Cash transfer plan a scam in the making"), the finance ministry said it has now standardized technology to enable customers to transact with any bank through any business correspondent. Earlier, a customer was locked...

-Pratirodh.com If Year 2012 earned the sobriquet of “Year of Scams’ due to serial expose of “super social cop” Arvind Kejeriwal, and the year-end tragic death of girl in Delhi gang rape case reminded us about the most ugly manifestation of ‘Republic of Patriarchy’ in India, Year 2013 promises to be a game changer for the fortunes of welfare state in India as well as political fortunes of UPA-2.   If Narendra Modi,...

-Outlook Taking a strong stand against the statements made by some politicians after the Delhi gang rape incident, Union Minister Jairam Ramesh today said such people should be asked to "go home". The minister said he felt "diminished as a human being" after the December incident which has hurt India's image across the world. "None of us have come out of this looking good. Personally as a man, as an Indian, I felt...

-PTI The oil ministry has proposed a Rs 3-4.50 per litre hike in diesel price and Rs 100 in LPG rates along with raising the number of subsidised cooking gas cylinders for households to nine a year from the current cap of six. The ministry has moved a note for consideration of the Cabinet proposing options for meeting a record Rs 160,000 crore deficit arising from selling auto and cooking fuels below...

-The Times of India Brace for higher fuel bills as the government has formally started the consultation process for raising diesel and cooking gas prices - the latter with an increased annual cap of nine subsidized refills - in line with the recommendations of a finance ministry panel. The committee under former bureaucrat Vijay Kelkar, tasked to suggest a roadmap for cutting fiscal deficit, has suggested raising diesel price periodically to align...