The government of India's Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana (RSBY)a¦ is now internationally recognised for its innovative approach to harnessing information technology to reach the poor, says the World Bank in the context of the smart card-based cashless health insurance scheme. The RSBY has now been picked up by UNDP as one of the 19 schemes worldwide for its publication, Sharing Innovative Experience: Social Protection Floor Success Stories. About 20 million...

Union Home Minister Palaniappan Chidambaram, lacking sportsman’s spirit, has stuck to his post like Dendrite paste, despite a series of failures in combating secessionist insurgencies including the armed offensive led by the Communist Party of India (Maoist). He parrots Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and considers Maoists to be “the most formidable challenge to governance.” “Only if villagers think that the real adversary is the Naxal who keeps them under threat will...

Economically weaker urban sections, entitled to get flats under the Rajiv Ratan Awas Yojana, will now not be able to sell their houses for at least 15 years after the allotment. Senior Delhi Urban Shelter Improvement Board (DUSIB) officials have said they have worked out a plan to ensure that slum-dwellers who get subsidised houses under the scheme live in them. The Rajiv Ratan Awas Yojana is the urban counterpart of the...

The self-esteem of Narmada Bachao Andolan (NBA), the activist group formed by Medha Patkar 22 years ago, may suffer a severe dent with the Supreme Court on Wednesday “discrediting” the organisation for making false statements. The observation, part of a judgment by a three-member Bench, led by Justice J M Panchal, follows an earlier caution that it may be “blacklisted” from representing the farmers of Narmada valley in any court. The...

Amid technical and infrastructural constraints, Maharashtra has rolled out 1.2 million Aadhaars, but the beneficiaries have been able to make little use of these numbers Ashok Bhil, a 25-year-old graduate from Navalpur, 7 Km from Tembhli, is disappointed with the way the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) is rolling out Aadhaar in Maharashtra. Last September, the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government chose Tembhli, a small village in the predominantly tribal Nandurbar...