-The Hindu   The ambitious and controversial Unique ID scheme — Aadhaar — received a double boost in this year's budget: not only did Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee sanction Rs. 1,758 crore to enrol 40 crore more residents, but Prime Minister Manmohan Singh also emphasised that the scheme would soon become the main channel through which people could access a wide variety of budget benefits. “I propose to allocate adequate funds to complete...

Finance minister Pranab Mukherjee ushered in a regime of cash transfers for the payment of subsidies for food, fertilizers and kerosene, along with social welfare payments, by accepting the recommendations of a panel headed by Nandan Nilekani, chairman of the Unique Identification Authority of India. The recommendations, submitted last month, had prepared a blueprint for transferring cash directly into the bank accounts of the beneficiaries by linking these to their unique...

Budget 2012 has further validated the existence of the Unique Identification Authority of India, whose identity was under question barely six months ago, by giving it more money and responsibilities to shape the government's technological interventions. The government has allocated the UIDAI Rs 1,758 crore from the Budget in 2012-13, a year-on-year increase of 47%, primarily to increase enrolments of Indians for unique IDs to 600 million, from 200 million.  A...

-PTI A demand was raised in Rajya Sabha today that the Government should put in place a strong surveillance network to monitor inflow of foreign funds to NGOs besides creating a data base in the interest of national security.  "Government should establish a data base of NGOs to whom foreign contribution is increasing day by day. There are reports that funds are being utilised to fuel unrest in government projects," B S...

A non-government organisation campaigning for cheaper essential drugs has proposed an alternative pricing model that seeks to fix retail prices at the average price of all brands in a segment.  The proposal of the All India Drug Action Network (AIDAN) is being examined by the department of pharmaceuticals (DoP), an official said. AIDAN says its new pricing mechanism, which excludes brands that account for the top 20% by sales, will make...