-The Times of India With finance minister P Chidambaram recently declaring at a full Planning Commission meeting that cash transfers may replace subsidies for food, fertilizers and fuel by the end of the 12th five-year Plan, the controversial proposal has again taken centre stage. A recently concluded pilot project which substituted ration cards with Rs 1,000 transferred monthly to families throws light on the pros and cons of the scheme. The study...

-Frontline Members of denotified, nomadic and semi-nomadic tribes, treated as criminal tribes by the colonial rulers, have no place to call their own and no land, no rights, and no support from the government.  Emaciated, eyes sunken deep into sockets, skin hanging loose, almost gasping for breath, Indro Devi and Sarvnath, a couple in their eighties, lie on polythene sheets in an 8×10 square-foot tent made of rags, by a stinking nullah...

-The Financial Express The government is unlikely to take up the National Food Security Bill in the winter season of Parliament as the panel examining the proposed law had to be reconstituted as its tenure had lapsed. The National Food Security Bill, 2011, which was introduced in the Lok Sabha by food minister KV Thomas in the winter session last year, was referred to the Parliamentary Standing Committee chaired by Vilas Muttemwar...

-PTI Regulator IRDA has come with a draft proposal to expand the reach of insurance cover to Below Poverty Line (BPL) families in the next five years. "The target group shall be the BPL population... Each insurer shall prescribe the target in proportion to their market share. IRDA shall prescribe annual target so as to cover entire BPL population in the next five years," Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (IRDA) said in...

-The Indian Express The government may consider “minor adjustments” on the LPG cylinder cap in the wake of pressure from within the Congress and Trinamool Congress's decision to withdraw support to the UPA. Sources said while there is no question of rollback of the government's decision to put a cap on the number of subsidized cylinders, the government was ready for minor adjustments on it and can increase the total number of...