-The Economic Times In the leaky system of welfare delivery, databases are the newest valve that governments are installing to ensure that benefits reach those-and only those -they are intended for. Since December 2012, for instance, the government of Madhya Pradesh has been appending on to the Centre's Socio Economic and Caste Census a host of household-level data: bank account numbers, NREGA card numbers, welfare entitlements, land ownership, whether their house is...
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Missing the woods for the greenback-Praveen Bhargav
-The Hindu The draft policy on the use of forest land is at odds with sound conservation principles and fails to plug holes in current guidelines that work to the advantage of project promoters The Supreme Court in July 2011 while delivering the Lafarge Judgment laid down guidelines on forest clearance procedures. These were to operate till a new regulatory mechanism was put in place. Two years after the judgment, the Ministry...
More »Delhi records 1,121 rape cases in 8 months, highest in 13 years
-PTI NEW DELHI: A whopping 1,121 rape cases were registered in the city in the first eight months of this year, the highest in the last 13 years. Police see this rise in the number of cases as a good sign, saying that more cases are now being reported which was not the case earlier and a number of efforts have been taken to ensure women safety in the city after the...
More »UPA’s showpiece cash plan flops in Congress bastion -Chetan Chauhan
-The Hindustan Times The UPA's showpiece direct benefits transfer (DBT) plan is struggling. Poor Aadhaar enrolment clubbed with lack of banking facilities is coming in the way of the anti-poverty programme. Numbers are telling. Two months after the roll out in Rae Bareli, the constituency of Congress president Sonia Gandhi, only Rs. 1,400 has been transferred in Rae Bareli. The district has 6,000 people enlisted for the National Social Security Programme....
More »Delhi has lost 21 lakes since 1997-98: Intach -Jayashree Nandi
-The Times of India NEW DELHI: A decade-and-a-half is a long time when it comes to the rapidly changing face of a city. But is it long enough to make as many as 21 lakes disappear from the city's map? Delhi seems to have lost half of its lakes since 1997-98. Natural heritage scientists from The Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage (Intach) recently presented these findings at the...
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