-The Hindu Difficulty in implementing schemes, owing to conceptual confusion at multiple levels: Khurshid External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid on Sunday attributed the difficulty in administering and implementing welfare programmes for Muslims to conceptual confusion evident at multiple levels — from courts through policymakers and social scientists and experts. Mr. Khurshid, who previously held charge of the Ministry of Minority Affairs, said a Supreme Court interim stay had facilitated the implementation of four...

-The Times of India The government has said that it is not handing over monopoly rights to any entity for Distribution of cash under the direct benefit transfer scheme. In response to a TOI article on December 30 ("Cash transfer plan a scam in the making"), the finance ministry said it has now standardized technology to enable customers to transact with any bank through any business correspondent. Earlier, a customer was locked...

-Outlook Ahmedabad: Gujarat High Court today directed the Centre to explain why contempt proceedings should not be initiated against it for not implementing an order to provide natural gas to the city at the rates on par with Mumbai and Delhi under administered price mechanism (APM). "To date no special leave petition has been filed in the Supreme Court challenging our order dated July 25, 2012.... We direct (Centre) to file an...

-The Hindu Subsidies on cooking gas, kerosene and diesel have resulted in perverse outcomes not envisaged when they were introduced With the Aadhaar-based direct cash transfer scheme facing so many glitches in implementation, any hopes that the country’s energy sector can soon dismount the subsidy tiger it has been riding so dangerously have receded into the background. Had the Aadhaar scheme worked satisfactorily, the next logical step would have been to extend...

-National Human Rights Commission The National Human Rights Commission organized a day-long National Conference on 'Right to Food' in New Delhi today. Addressing it, Mr. Justice K.G. Balakrishnan, Chairperson, NHRC said that the Commission has always been concerned with the issue. Due to it's intervention, there is a lot of improvement now in Kalahandi, Bolangir and Koraput (KBK) Districts of Odisha which reported starvations deaths. The NHRC Chairperson said that there is...