-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...

-The Business Standard The government needs to be braver with cash transfers On October 20, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is scheduled to launch the first major step in integrating the Unique ID, or Aadhaar, with government welfare schemes. The event is supposed to take place in Dudu, a town in Jaipur district in Congress-ruled Rajasthan. The presence of Congress President Sonia Gandhi also seems to suggest that the United Progressive Alliance...

The Union rural development ministry has decided to ape Planning Commission's discussion with states for annual finances to send a stronger message about Centre's authorship on welfare schemes, a move aimed at addressing the longstanding gripe of Congress that states were cornering all the credit. The ministry has asked states to prepare for "annual plan discussion for RD schemes" from 2012, a consultation to finalise their budget for each scheme...

**page** [inside]KEY TRENDS of the Union Budget 2023-24[/inside] Budget 2023-24 is the last full budget before the general election scheduled for 2024. An analysis of the budget allocations suggests that the union government has squeezed expenditure, particularly on food subsidy and the NREGA budget, while boosting Capital expenditure and giving the middle class tax benefits. Social sector activists working on Right to Food, the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) came out with...