-The Times of India The government is moving rapidly to enable cash transfers through the Aadhar platform with 51 districts to be covered by January 1, 2013, and half the country four months later — a bid to rollout an initiative aimed at streamlining subsidies while also earning votes. The plan is to put money directly into bank accounts of beneficiaries of government schemes like scholarships, cheap food under the Public Distribution...

-Outlook Mumbai: To ensure that both private and state-run power distributors abide by the renewable purchase obligations (RPOs), the Union Ministry of New and Renewable Energy has called for amendments to the Electricity Act. "We have realised that some private companies and state discoms are not complying with the RPO. To make it mandatory, we have proposed an amendment to the Electricity Act," joint secretary Tarun Kapoor told reporters on the sidelines...

-The Hindu The comprehensive clean-up that the public sector oil marketing companies recently initiated in the liquefied petroleum gas Distribution system is a commendable if long overdue effort to check what had evidently become a free-for-all game. Groaning under the “subsidy burden” in a market sector where consumption levels of the convenience fuel had skyrocketed over the decades, the companies first moved collectively to computerise data with regard to LPG consumers...

-Live Mint The ministerial committee will formulate policy on the Distribution of iron ore and other minerals  Orissa is forming a ministerial committee to formulate a policy on the Distribution of iron ore and other minerals, suggesting supplies might get tightened further after a mining ban in Goa and negligible availability in Karnataka.   A notification on this was issued late on Tuesday. The committee has to “suggest measures of making iron ore, manganese ore,...

-The Economic Times There has been a change of guard at the power ministry and Jyotiraditya Scindia, the new man in charge, has described his task as daunting. To simplify the many complexities, it's worth keeping in mind an adage that's particularly apt for rural India: Nothing is more expensive than no power. While on one hand there are thousands of villages that still remain to be electrified, on the other even...