-The Indian Express As the government begins the second phase of rollout of Direct Benefits Transfer in 78 districts from July 1, it would do well to look back at the rather shaky experience of the scheme's implementation in the past six months, and whether it is in fact prepared to bring in more areas under the scheme's ambit. The ambitious plan, that aims at eliminating middlemen and ensuring money reaches beneficiaries...

-Timescrest.com Three successive CAG reports warned the Uttarakhand govt about the consequences of multiple hydropower projects, and their unpreparedness in the face of disaster. The advice was ignored. With aim of turning Uttarakhand into Urja Pradesh, the state has committed to building 680 dams, currently in various stages of commissioning, construction and Planning. The powers that be have expedited the clearances for these projects. However, when it came to the issue of credible...

-The Indian Express In March, a task force on disaster management set up by the government in 2011 submitted its report, suggesting sweeping changes to the Disaster Management Act, 2005. But it did not get much attention. It took the devastation of Uttarakhand for the home ministry to take a serious look at the report. The task force, led by former NDMA secretary P K Mishra, suggested that the NDMA, which...

-The Hindu Indentured labour may be a forgotten part of our colonial economic history but Bihar and eastern Uttar Pradesh are still sending ‘Girmitya' to toil in distant lands The descendants of indentured labourers, who migrated from eastern Uttar Pradesh and Bihar to erstwhile colonies, recently met at The Hague in the Netherlands to commemorate 140 years of migration - perpetuated through a system popularly known as ‘Girmit.' They gathered from all...

-Frontline     Attempts by the Congress-led UPA government to adopt the ordinance route to pass the Food Security Bill fail as the opposition parties are more or less united in seeking a Bill that provides universal PDS coverage. THE National Food Security Bill (NFSB), 2013, touted as the biggest game changer for the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government in the 2014 parliamentary elections, will go through yet another round of discussions...