-The Times of India NEW DELHI: Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) was supposed to be a game-changer ahead of the 2014 general elections, with the government planning to plug leakages by transferring cash directly into the accounts of beneficiaries and hoping to cash in on their goodwill. But eight months down the line, it is discovering that the grand plan has run into bureaucratic walls and the beneficiaries are not ready to...

-The Times of India AHMEDABAD: When Mahatma Gandhi promoted the use of khadi for cottage industries of India, little did he imagine that workers of this industry would have to openly rebel for being meted out step-motherly treatment by the government. The Khadi and Village Industries Commission (KVIC) has not paid the 20% rebate on the production value of khadi to several khadi institutions for two years in a row, claim...

-Newslaundry.com There's always outrage at the government ad spend on the death and birth centenaries of our erstwhile politicians. On Rajiv Gandhi's death centenary in 2013, we carried a report with incorrect figures. Following which, we filed a Right To Information (RTI) application to ask for the amount of advertising spend by the government on Rajiv Gandhi's death centenary ads in the Delhi editions of various English newspapers. When we contacted...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: In another mega scheme to woo the poor, the Centre proposes to spend Rs 7,860 crore distributing 2.5 crore mobile phones and 90 lakh tablets virtually free of cost to targeted beneficiaries over the next four years starting 2014-15, in the name of bridging the digital divide in the country. The mobile phones will come bundled with free connection charges for two years. The user, who...

-The Hindu Jagdish Bhagwati's attacks on Amartya Sen are based on a series of misattributions and obscure the real issues on which the two economists differ Rich and lively public debates are the raison d'être of any democracy. But the recent attacks by Professor Jagdish Bhagwati on Dr. Amartya Sen confound the real issues on which Sen and Bhagwati differ. Bhagwati tries to position himself as a proponent of growth that would benefit...