-The Indian Express The UPA has long been planning a shift to direct cash transfers for poor households, with a view to replacing the 3.23 lakh crore worth of unwieldy subsidies currently in place. Last year, the then finance minister Pranab Mukherjee had spoken of the famously inefficient food and fertiliser subsidies, and of a comprehensive overhaul through cash transfers. Now, that plan has been fleshed out further. The prime minister...

-The Business Standard Cash transfer is targeted at the poor, but Aadhaar has no role in identifying the poor The disbursement of subsidies through direct cash transfers is round the corner. It will begin in 51 districts in the new year, just over a month away, and in half the country in four months’ time. So it is important to ask: do we have the capability to take on this job,...

-The Business Standard Govt must stop open-ended procurement of wheat It is not often that the government asks the Commission for Agricultural Costs and Prices (CACP) to review its report on the pricing and marketing policy for wheat — though the commission’s recommendations have been overlooked in the past to factor in political considerations while fixing minimum support prices (MSP). The present controversy over wheat- marketing policies concerns chiefly two issues....

-The Times of India Stocking up of foodgrains by the government could be one of the major factors for the continuing surge in food prices, warn experts. Latest wholesale price data available on the industry department's website shows that wheat prices are up almost 20% in October compared to a year ago. That's at a time when the government is holding stocks of 42 million tonnes — three times the buffer stock...

-Outlook An Odisha minister today dubbed as impractical direct electronic cash transfer of subsidies to beneficiaries in backward regions. "How can it be possible when a large number of people in Odisha do not have bank accounts?" Odisha's Food minister P K Deb questioned. "The basic objective of the Public Distribution System to arrest hunger among the poor will be defeated if the beneficiaries are provided cash instead of cheap food," the minister...