-The Financial Express In a move that could speed up the ambitious direct cash Transfer programme, rural development minister Jaiarm Ramesh has suggested other entities such as state governments and banks should be roped in to enroll residents in the Aadhaar system. In a letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Ramesh said the direct benefits Transfers (DBT) scheme would be successful if multiple registrars are allowed to enroll beneficiaries in the Aadhaar...

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...

-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 Business Standard Reetika Khera Professor, Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi* “Aadhaar is being made de facto compulsory for welfare schemes. With two-thirds without Aadhaar, they are bound to be denied entitlements” There are three components of the government’s direct benefit Transfer scheme — computerisation, extending banking services and linking the benefits with Aadhaar. The real game-changers are the first two, whereas Aadhaar-enabled Transfers carry the risk of excluding current beneficiaries. The Central government has...

-The Times of India The government has said that it is not handing over monopoly rights to any entity for distribution of cash under the direct benefit Transfer scheme. In response to a TOI article on December 30 ("Cash Transfer plan a scam in the making"), the finance ministry said it has now standardized technology to enable customers to transact with any bank through any business correspondent. Earlier, a customer was locked...