Cash transfers are now suggested by many as a silver bullet for addressing the problems that plague India’s anti-poverty programmes. This article argues instead for evidence-based policy and informed public debate to clarify the place, prospects and problems of cash transfers in India. By drawing on key empirical findings from academic and grey literature across the world an attempt is made to draw attention to three aspects of cash transfers...

Finally, gory pictorial warnings like that of rotting mouths, hanging gums and infected lungs, will appear on cigarette, bidi, cigar and smokeless or chewing tobacco packets from December 1. The Union health ministry issued the notification on Saturday after years of buckling to resistance from the all-powerful tobacco lobby. The latest notification contains a set of four pictures each of lung and oral cancer. The warnings, which will be rotated every two...

-The Hindu   Medha Patkar ends fast on day 9 Medha Patkar, leader of the National Alliance of People's Movements (NAPM), ended her nine-day fast at Mumbai's Golibar colony on Saturday after the government handed her two resolutions incorporating the demands of the agitators. “It is a victory for the lakhs of people fighting for their right to live in the financial capital of India with dignity,” Ms. Patkar said. “The real fight...

-The Telegraph   Packets of chewing tobacco sold across India after December 1, 2011 will have to show graphic images portraying the disfiguring effects of oral cancer, but cigarette and bidi packets may show milder pictures, the Union health ministry said today. The health ministry has notified two new sets of pictorial warnings — harsher images for packets of chewing tobacco — that will replace the existing pictures, scorpions on chewed tobacco...

-The Economic Times   Lok Pal bill joint draft committee member Arvind Kejriwal today alleged that vested interests seemed to have ganged up to discredit the proposed legislation by unleashing a sustained campaign to spread misconceptions and falsehood. He said vested interests first made an attack on the individual members of the committee and now they are attacking the bill per se questioning the provisions of the bill. "You would see various articles...