Should they be targeted? Should they go to individuals or households? Are conditionalities necessary? Without a full consideration of these issues, cash transfers will remain an expensive gamble Having worked on cash transfers for over 25 years, and being an economist, I find recent criticisms of the idea shrill and ill-informed. Only a right-wing ideologue would call them a panacea or a cure-all. They would merely be a vast improvement on...

-The Hindu With increasing demands for execution of Parliament Attack accused Afzal Guru, the Amnesty International has urged President Pranab Mukherjee to immediately halt all death sentences and go with the internationally accepted principle of “right to life”. In a letter to Mr. Mukherjee, Amnesty International India Chief Executive G. Ananthapadmanaban urged him to commute all death sentences into terms of imprisonment, halt further executions and establish an official moratorium on executions...

-io9.com Wheat and grain-based foods are all around us. We love our bagels, pasta, bread, and breakfast cereals. For many, the thought of eliminating these staples from our diets seems wholly unreasonable, if not ludicrous. But a growing number of people are switching to wheat-free diets — and for very good reason. As science is increasingly showing, eating wheat increases the potential for a surprising number of health problems. Here's why...

-The Economic Times On November 9, 2012, the government announced that from January 2013, 51 districts of the country would be subjected to Aadhaar- based direct cash transfers (DCT). We need some basic answers before we get to term the initiative as a game-changer. Aadhaar and the link with bank accounts: The Reserve Bank of India, initially having notified that Aadhaar number as valid for opening a bank account for know-your-customer norms,...

-The Times of India As many as 477 convicts awarded death sentence are awaiting hanging in various jails across the country, the government told the Rajya Sabha on Wednesday. Maharashtra, which last month hanged LeT terrorist Ajmal Kasab in a secret operation after President Pranab Mukherjee rejected his mercy petition, has 50 convicts in its jails awaiting hanging, putting it third on the list of states with maximum number of convicts awaiting...