-The Indian Express Two weeks before the direct cash transfer is unveiled in 43 districts, a partial list available with The Indian Express reveals generation of Aadhaar numbers has been erratic till November 30. Faced with low registration in some states, the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) has reportedly asked the state governments to focus on enrolling only those who will benefit from the 34 schemes covered under the direct...

-The Hindu Centre buoyed by PILot scheme’s success Encouraged by the response to its PILot scheme on home delivery of contraceptives by women health workers, the Centre has decided to extend the programme across the country with immediate effect. The initiative of supplying contraceptives — condoms, oral contraceptive PILls (OCP) and emergency contraceptive PILls — at home by accredited social health activists (ASHAs) was launched on a PILot basis in 233 districts in...

-The Hindustan Times With just three days left before the ongoing winter session winds up, the UPA floor managers are in a hurry to clear its pending legislative agenda. For Tuesday, the government has listed as many as seven bills for discussion and passing. Top government sources indicated that it may list heavy agenda for the remaining two days as well. With a large part of the session already disrupted over the...

Should they be targeted? Should they go to individuals or households? Are conditionalities necessary? Without a full consideration of these issues, cash transfers will remain an expensive gamble Having worked on cash transfers for over 25 years, and being an economist, I find recent criticisms of the idea shrill and ill-informed. Only a right-wing ideologue would call them a panacea or a cure-all. They would merely be a vast improvement on...

-The Hindu Chennai: Union Finance Minister P. Chidambaram said the cash transfer scheme, aiming at crediting subsidy amount directly to the bank accounts of beneficiaries, would be fully implemented throughout the country by December 2013. “Beneficiaries of 39 schemes will get their money transferred to their bank accounts directly,” Mr. Chidambaram said, while participating in the centenary celebrations of former Assembly Speaker S. Chellapandian on Sunday. He said the “your-money-in-your-hands” scheme would...