-Outlook The Social Justice Ministry has asked some of the key Central ministries to take necessary steps to safeguard the interests of senior citizens and ensure their financial, health and personal securities. The move comes following recommendations of the ministry's first 'National Conference on Ageing' in this regard. The Social Justice and Empowerment Ministry has forwarded its recommendations to Union ministries such as Home Affairs, Finance, Health and Rural Development to take steps...

-The Business Standard Reetika Khera Professor, Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi* “Aadhaar is being made de facto compulsory for welfare schemes. With two-thirds without Aadhaar, they are bound to be denied entitlements” There are three components of the government’s direct benefit transfer scheme — computerisation, extending banking services and linking the benefits with Aadhaar. The real game-changers are the first two, whereas Aadhaar-enabled transfers carry the risk of excluding current beneficiaries. The Central government has...

-Pratirodh.com If Year 2012 earned the sobriquet of “Year of Scams’ due to serial expose of “super social cop” Arvind Kejeriwal, and the year-end tragic death of girl in Delhi gang rape case reminded us about the most ugly manifestation of ‘Republic of Patriarchy’ in India, Year 2013 promises to be a game changer for the fortunes of welfare state in India as well as political fortunes of UPA-2.   If Narendra Modi,...

-Forbes India A look at the crucial issues involved Over the past three years, India has vigorously debated the merits of having a Unique Identity (UID) number for each citizen and, allied with it, the move towards direct cash transfers (DCT) of subsidies (like food, fuel and fertilizer) and social security endowments, like pensions and scholarships. On January 1, India took its first steps towards UID-enabled direct cash transfers. But the move has...

-The Times of India MUMBAI: Roiled by a rash of corruption charges, the Maharashtra government appears to be headed for deeper trouble. An investigation has unearthed the involvement of thousands of officials and politicians in a decade-old fraud, in which Rs 101 crore of public funds were siphoned off and disbursed to 1.49 lakh bogus beneficiaries. Of the numerous recipients of the dole meant for the destitute, the probe found, 19,367...