Cash transfer as substitute for state service provision is a dangerous recipe for callously anti-poor and corrupt governance. THE staggering number of recent articles, papers and books on the virtues of giving cash in place of public services to the poor has created an impression that a sort of epidemic has broken out. Economists, policymakers, bureaucrats and newspaper commentators are all infected by it and are in turn infecting others. The central...

Massive backlog in submission of Detailed Contingent Bills 1,021 cases of misappropriation, defalcation, Theft amounting to Rs. 407.97 crore as of March 2010 Large number of unfurnished utilisation certificates for grants to the tune of Rs.4,527.77 crore The pendency of Detailed Contingent (DC) Bills, once a subject of a free-for-all in the Bihar Assembly last year, has popped up again in the Comptroller and Auditor-General's report tabled in the Assembly on Wednesday. The audit...

His ministry had earlier put a stop on the project citing ecological damage Delhi Govt. insisted that only the dam can solve Capital's water woes Union Environment and Forests Minister Jairam Ramesh on Sunday said he will undertake an inspection of the Nahan Valley in Himachal Pradesh, the site of the proposed Renuka Dam, which has been turned down by his office on the grounds that it involves the axing of 1.77...

Global business abhors uncertainty. The ministerial-level corruption in UPA-II has slowed FDI and FII inflows. The stock market, despite double-digit corporate profit and 8.6% GDP growth, reflects the anxiety of Indian and foreign investors. To take India's growth story forward in the 20th year of economic reforms, political reforms must catch up. Misgovernance won't do in a globalised, interconnected world. Two kinds of political corruption blight India: episodical and ongoing. Episodical...

The ITO crossing was full of protest chants against the government’s move to provide cash instead of subsidised food and fuel through the Public Distribution System (PDS). Women from slums and resettlement colonies across Delhi-NCR and representatives of 30-odd organisations that participated in the protest — organised by ‘Rozi-Roti Aadhikar Abhiyan’ — expressed discontentment over the decision. The government should strengthen the PDS system instead of replacing it with a new system,...