-TheWire.in Conditionalities related to utilising health Services do not make any sense in the absence of a service guarantee, and only serve to blame the victims and not the system for its failures. Nearly six months after the prime minister announced maternity benefits of Rs 6,000 to pregnant and lactating mothers, the cabinet yesterday approved the implementation of the maternity benefits programme (MBP) – a scheme that will likely exclude a large...
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June 30 not a 'deadline' to get Aadhaar, govt. tells SC -Krishnadas Rajagopal
-The Hindu Court defers petition to June 27 for omnibus hearing The Supreme Court on Friday refrained to order an interim stay on a series of government notifications requiring citizens to have Aadhaar by June 30, 2017, to equally access benefits and entitlements, even as the Centre denied imposing any such ‘deadline” to force people to get Aadhaar. The government was responding to a petition challenging 17 notifications issued by various government departments...
More »GST rates announced; milk, cereals to be exempted -Yuthika Bhargava
-The Hindu 81% items to be taxed at below 18% The Goods and Services (GST) Council on Thursday agreed on the fitment of almost all commodities in the various tax slabs under the new indirect regime to be rolled out on July 1. Milk, cereals (unpackaged and unbranded), and jaggery will be exempt from any GST, while sugar, tea, coffee (except instant), and edible oil will be taxed at 5%. Common use items...
More »Economy growing at 7%, jobs at 1% -Subodh Varma
-The Times of India While the economy is growing at just over 7% per year, jobs increased by just 1.1% last year, according to a recently-released report covering eight key sectors of the non-farm economy. An earlier report had pegged joblessness at a fiveyear high of 5% in 2015, and under-employment at a staggering 35% of the over-15 years labour force. Seen in this context, the government is facing a growing employment...
More »Cash is back as digital payments dip on cost -TCA Sharad Raghavan
-The Hindu PoS devices’ demand falls on remonetisation, user charges Cash transactions are beginning to trump almost every form of digital payment alternative with April clocking a decline in volumes as well as value of transactions conducted through cards, mobile banking and the Unified Payment Interface (UPI). The trend assumes significance six months after the Centre announced demonetisation of ?500 and ?1,000 notes on November 8. The near-completion of the remonetisation process and merchants...
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