Five years into the implementation of the right to work programme, the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) has the potential to create even sharper division between states than what existed before it was launched. This is becoming increasingly clear through reports like the second report of the National Consortium of Civil Society Organisations on NREGA, released last week in Delhi by rural development minister Jairam Ramesh. It is...

The finance ministry has put its seal of approval on a proposal to directly transfer subsidies to the bank account of a beneficiary that is linked to her Aadhaar, or unique identification (UID) number. The government has previously articulated its desire to experiment with direct transfers to make its management of subsidies more efficient and ensure benefits actually reach the targeted people. In a notification issued on Tuesday, the finance ministry extended...

-The Hindu   The government on Tuesday extended the terms of reference of the Nilekani task force on direct transfer of subsidies to include an Aadhaar-enabled unified payment infrastructure. Set up by the Union Finance Ministry under the chairmanship of Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) chief Nandan Nilekani in February, the task force was asked to recommend and implement a solution for direct transfer of subsidies on kerosene, LPG and fertiliser to...

A survey conducted across nine states by the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi and Allahabad University suggests that the much maligned system has revived, prodded by politics, good governance and the apex court. It also found the poor to be averse to cash transfers Kotri is a mid-sized village in Desuri block (Pali district, Rajasthan), about 15 kilometres away from the nearest large bus stand and market place. We walked to...

CGNet Swara in Chhattisgarh is a mobile radio platform that has helped bring tribal issues to national attention. MAHADEV SINGH, a Baiga tribal person, hails from a village situated atop a forested hill near Bilaspur, Chhattisgarh. While most of the neighbouring villages are electrified and welfare schemes from the government reach them to an extent, Mahadev's village has lost out in this regard owing to its inaccessibility. Mahadev and his...