-Kafila.org The village of Majure, in Chitradurga district, Karnataka, is once again in the news. It made the national headlines in 1998 when dalits in the village lodged a police complaint against members of the dominant Vokkaliga and Lingayat castes for an attack on their hamlet. As a consequence, several people were put behind bars. This time round, however, no formal complaint was lodged. Not that things have improved (rather, one could...

-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...

-The Hindu The large sums of money spent in the eradication of the disease is an investment in the economic development of the country In the 1980s, only three decades ago, 200,000 to 400,000 children, all under 5 years, were afflicted with polio paralysis annually in India. That was a daily average of 500 to 1000 cases. By the age of six, eight among 1,000 children already had polio paralysis; two would...

-The Telegraph The Centre is poised to launch a pilot project to study the delivery of food subsidy through direct cash transfer, a proposed system that civil society groups feel will end up inconveniencing the poor beneficiaries. The food and consumer affairs ministry will start the pilot scheme in the six Union territories next month, a top government source told The Telegraph. Now, households buy food grains at subsidised rates (called the “central...

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...