-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,...
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Is UID-linked cash transfer a good idea?-Sreelatha Menon
-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...
More »Inside the Direct Cash Transfer Debate-Udit Misra
-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...
More »Aruna Roy objects to direct cash transfer
-The Times of India National Advisory Council (NAC) member and MKSS leader Aruna Roy on Friday shot off a scathing letter to the finance ministry objecting to "talk" of subsidy cuts for the poor while funding programmes like Aadhar that have no legislative backing. She also suggested that pre-budget consultations for business and social sector should be held jointly in a more democratic fashion. Expressing "shock" at subsidy cuts Roy, who did...
More »Pilot schemes must stabilise to show the benefits of cash transfer system
-The Economic Times The government has done well to scale down the initial reach of the direct cash transfer system of handing out subsidies. Direct benefit transfer (DBT), as it is called now, will cover only 20 districts and seven scholarship schemes instead of 51 districts and 34 schemes planned earlier. Limiting coverage makes eminent sense. It is better to do a thorough job than to fumble at a mammoth task,...
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