-Economic and Political Weekly We support cash transfers such as old-age pensions, widow pensions, maternity entitlements and scholarships. However, we oppose the government’s plan for accelerated mass conversion of welfare schemes to Unique Identification Authority (UID)-driven cash transfers. This plan could cause havoc and massive social exclusion. We demand the following: (1) No replacement of food with cash under the public distribution system (PDS). (2) Immediate enactment of a comprehensive National Food Security...
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The trouble with hurried solutions -Chinmayi Arun
-The Hindu The World Conference on International Telecommunication showed that countries are not yet ready to arrive at a consensus on regulation and control of the Internet The World Conference on International Telecommunication (WCIT) that concluded on December 14 saw much heated debate. Some countries wanted to use the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) to gain intergovernmental control of the World Wide Web. Some saw it as an opportunity to democratise the Internet,...
More »How We Saved Agriculture, Fed the World and Ended Rural Poverty: Looking Back from 2050 -Duncan Green
-Oxfam Blog As Oxfam’s two week online debate on the future of agriculture gets under way, John Ambler of Oxfam America imagines how it could all turn out right in the end. It is now 2050. Globally, we are 9 billion strong. Only 20% of us are directly involved in agriculture, and poor country economies have diversified. Yet we all have enough food. Technological innovation has played its part, but increased production...
More »BMW hit and run case: R K Anand fined, told to help poor -Dhananjay Mahapatra
-The Times of India For attempting to influence prosecution witness during trial in the BMW hit and run case, the Supreme Court ordered ex-senior advocate R K Anand to pay Rs 21 lakh for setting up a library in a law college meant for the underprivileged and also render free professional service to poor litigants for a year. A bench of Justices G S Singhvi, Aftab Alam and C K Prasad said...
More »Blundering on land and Aadhaar-Praful Bidwai
-Pratirodh.com The fanfare with which Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress president Sonia Gandhi launched a service delivery scheme in Rajasthan based on the Aadhaar (foundation) unique identity (UID), and celebrated the issue of the first Aadhaar number topping the 200-million mark, should make the Indian National Congress a very worried party indeed—assuming it has a good survival instinct and basic grasp of practical politics. To put it starkly, the Congress and...
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