-The Times of India The Reserve Bank of India having opened the window for new bank licences, the postal department is finalizing the blueprint to set up a bank of its own at your neighbourhood post office, a move that will challenge the dominance of large public sector lenders in smaller towns and rural India. While the department already has a balance sheet of Rs 6.18 lakh crore, which includes deposits of...

-The Hindu Out of 20,000 beneficiaries in Ajmer district, only 220 actually received cash Accusing the government of “forcing” people to enrol for an Aadhaar number, social activist and National Advisory Council member Aruna Roy says the performance of the Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) scheme in the first two months has been “dismal,” resulting in “exclusion” of poor beneficiaries. Ms. Roy, a vociferous opponent of linking Aadhaar with welfare delivery, expressed her concerns...

-The Hindu   "To the women of India - we have a collective responsibility to ensure the dignity and safety of women. Recent incidents have cast a long dark shadow on our credentials. As more women enter public spaces...there are more reports of violence against them. We stand in solidarity with our girl children. We pledge to everything possible to keep them swcure. A number of measures are in the works...

-PTI The postal department plans to enter the banking business with the Reserve Bank of India deciding to grant new bank licences to entities with credible track-record. Consultant appointed Sources said the Department of Posts, which has a strong foot print in rural areas, has appointed Ernst and Young (E&Y) as the consultant for the proposed ‘Post Bank’ “Ernst and Young is expected to submit a detailed project report by April, after which all...

-The Business Standard Varad Pande, officer on special duty, ministry of rural development, says the Aadhaar identification project aims to cover at least half of country’s population by next year. He talks about where it has reached, in an interview with Samie Modak & Abhineet Kumar. Edited excerpts: * What is the Aadhaar project’s status? The project started about two years earlier and now has a little more than 270 million enrolled, roughly...