The Planning Commission has proposed the introduction of a state-funded health insurance programme by 2017 to cover every citizen of the country. The panel has suggested that the government formulate financial incentives for beneficiaries of the insurance programme as well as their employers to encourage them to participate in the plan. “The 12th Plan (2012-17) will explore the possibilities of introducing a government-funded health insurance plan for every citizen along the lines...
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Facing Anti-Poor Label, Govt Asks Plan Panel to Revise Joke of an Affidavit
-The Times of India Faced with fierce criticism over the Planning Commission’s new criteria for poverty line, the Government has asked the Plan panel to revise its affidavit. The Planning Commission had said that that those spending more than Rs. 32 a day in urban areas, or Rs. 26 a day in villages, would no longer be eligible to draw benefits meant for those living below the poverty line. The new tentative...
More »‘Rs. 39 enough for med expenditure’ by Dhananjay Mahapatra & Nitin Sethi
Updating the poverty line cutoff figures, the Planning Commission said that those spending in excess of Rs 32 a day in urban areas or Rs 26 a day in villages would no longer be eligible to draw benefits for those living below the poverty line. TOI broke down the overall monthly figure for urban areas and used the CPI for industrial workers along with the Tendulkar committie report figures to see...
More »Revolt in plan panel over BPL cap
-The Times of India Two Planning Commission members, Abhijeet Sen and Mihir Shah, came out in revolt on Wednesday against the panel’s affidavit to the Supreme Court that those spending Rs 32 a day in urban areas or Rs 26 a day in villages would no longer be deemed poor by the government. Sen and Shah told TOI that the Planning Commission had avoided answering the critical question that the SC had...
More »Delink food entitlement from poverty measures, say economists by Ruhi Tewari
A week after the Planning Commission submitted to India’s top court an affidavit on its assessment of who the poor are, several leading economists have urged the government to delink food entitlements from what they call “faulty” poverty measures. Last week, in an affidavit to the Supreme Court, India’s apex planning body said the spending threshold per capita for the poverty line was Rs.32 per day (per person) in cities and...
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