-The Hindu The challenge for the Modi government is to evaluate what works in development programming before making large spending decisions Governments in India have always launched big-ticket social development programmes with ambitious goals. The Narendra Modi government is no exception. Swachh Bharat Abhiyan aims to make India open defecation-free by 2019. The Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana's financial inclusion programme set a target of opening 10 crore bank accounts by January...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday outlined the next phase of the Jan-Dhan Yojana to include credit, insurance and pension as he complimented bankers for near 100% coverage of households under the massive financial inclusion drive. The Pradhan Mantri Jan-Dhan Yojana is a key policy plank of the Modi administration's vow to eradicate what it calls "financial untouchability". Each bank account comes with an accident insurance...

-The Hindu Panipat (Haryana): Launching the ‘Beti Bachao-Beti Padhao' scheme in Haryana, he said we must fight female foeticide and celebrate the birth of a girl child. The ‘Beti Bachao-Beti Padhao' scheme, which seeks to address gender imbalance and discrimination against the girl child, was launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi at Panipat in Haryana on Thursday. This is the fourth major scheme of his government after Jan Dhan Yojana, Swachh Bharat Abhiyan...

-The Indian Express After petrol and diesel, the Narendra Modi government is looking next to deregulate urea. In the works is a three-year plan to decontrol the maximum retail price (MRP) of this fertiliser - currently fixed at Rs 5,360 a tonne or Rs 268 per 50-kg bag - alongside permitting duty-free imports sans any canalisation or restrictions, and credit the subsidy directly into the bank accounts of farmers. Urea imports now...

-Press Information Bureau/ Ministry of Rural Development Year end Review -2014-15 The Ministry of Rural Development is likely to introduce Mobile Monitoring System for effective implementation of Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, MGNREGA. The Monitoring System will be introduced on a pilot basis to allow real time monitoring of all works, workers attendance and work site measurement. The move is likely to plug leakages in the rural job scheme. Moreover,...