-The Times of India The Planning Commission has bowed to in-house protests that government was using shortcuts to meet the targeted budget expenditure for dalits and tribals, amending the 12th plan document to insert a pledge to reform the annual spend on these communities. The commission has said it will beef up Scheduled Castes Sub-Plan and Tribal Sub-Plan that mandate the government to spend exclusively on SCs and STs in proportion to...

-Pratirodh.com If Year 2012 earned the sobriquet of “Year of Scams’ due to serial expose of “super social cop” Arvind Kejeriwal, and the year-end tragic death of girl in Delhi gang rape case reminded us about the most ugly manifestation of ‘Republic of Patriarchy’ in India, Year 2013 promises to be a game changer for the fortunes of welfare state in India as well as political fortunes of UPA-2.   If Narendra Modi,...

The total expenditure on central schemes for the poor and on the major subsidies exceeds the states' share of central taxes. These schemes are chronic bad performers due to a culture of immunity in public administration and weakened local governments. Arguing that the poor should be trusted to use these resources better than the state, a radical redirection with substantial direct transfers to individuals and complementary decentralisation to local governments...

-The Indian Express Following the recent “flash mob protests” against the government over the Delhi gangrape-and-murder, the Congress is set to discuss ways to tackle this “new phenomenon” at its chintan shivir to be held in Jaipur later this week. “We also have to discuss the impact and political ramifications of the social media. Thanks to Facebook and Twitter, you don’t need any organisation to mobilise people within minutes and hours... Although...

-The Times of India JAIPUR: Direct cash transfer scheme that was rolled out from January 1 this year in three pilot districts of Rajasthan is facing crippling absence of banking infrastructure and at this point it's anybody's guess when the banks can do their part to provide legs to the UPA-II's ambitious project. One of the pillar's of the project was to have banking correspondents (BCs) in the unbanked villages so that...