-The Business Standard Govt pushes biofuels again, despite bitter experience The nearly decade-old programme to promote ethanol-blended petrol has failed to make much headway despite continued attempts by the government to get it going. The latest such attempt was last week, when the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) made the very poor decision to force oil marketing companies to mix five per cent ethanol with petrol throughout the country from...

-The Hindustan Times The government will begin switching over to a system of direct cash transfers for welfare in the New Year and hopes to roll it out all over the country in the ensuing 364 days. This is a radical departure from the existing welfare delivery mechanism so riddled with leaks that a mere fraction of the benefits reach the intended target groups. By co-building these transfers with biometric enumeration...

-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...

-PTI A blanket ban on manufacture, sale, storage and use of plastic bags with stiff penalty against violators including imprisonment up to five years will come into effect in New Delhi on Friday. The government has now imposed the ban as per provision of the Environment (Protection) Act, 1986, under which violators could face imprisonment up to five years and fine of up to Rs. 1 lakh or both. "The ban on plastic...

-The Economic Times The government must decontrol sugar, lift curbs on trade in molasses and allow proper markets to function in this sector. Ill-informed would-be saviours of farmers like Gen V K Singh oppose the move. They only serve to fatten Liquor barons like the late Ponty Chadha and depress farm incomes. As an article by Nidhi Nath Srinivas (ET, November 22) points out, wily politicians use control to make the sugar...