This article documents and then examines the various benefits that, it is claimed, will flow from linking the Unique Identity number with the public distribution system and the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme. It filters the unfounded claims, which arise from a poor understanding of how the PDS and NREGS function, from the genuine ones. On the latter, there are several demanding conditions that need to be met in order...

An activist working for the implementation of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee scheme was killed after being mercilessly beaten by a group of 12 suspected Maoists at Jerua village in Latehar district. The activist, Niyamat Ansari, who was stated to be a close aide of noted economist Jean Dreze, died last night after Maoists beat him up with lathis, police sources alleged. A group dragged him out of his residence...

An activist working for the implementation of the National Rural Employment Guarantee scheme was killed after being caned continuously at Jerua village in Latehar district. The activist, Niyamat Ansari, a close aide of noted economist Jean Dreze, died after a group beat him with lathis, police said. The rebels reportedly dragged him out of his residence at 7 PM and started beating him up mercilessly. He was admitted to a local hospital...

Two aides of economist Jean Drèze were targeted by unscrupulous contractors, suspected to have been backed by Maoists, for exposing rampant corruption in the Centre’s flagship rural job scheme in a Latehar village late last night. Niyamat Ansari died after he was beaten up mercilessly by a 12-member gang at Jerua village, 130km from the state capital, but his friend and colleague Bhukan Singh had a narrow escape as he wasn’t...

Pranab Mukherjee, India’s finance minister, put the rural economy at the heart of a national budget on Monday, saying ridding the farm sector of crippling supply bottlenecks would be his “focus” in the coming fiscal year.A market-neutral budget supporting agriculture, welfare schemes and the extension of banking services to more people was designed to dispel any sense that the Congress party-led government was in drift after a series of high...