-The Economic Times Cash transfers will become a reality soon, and one area that the government is going to align with this mechanism is the Public Distribution System (PDS). While, prima facie, it appears to be a good idea, given that it removes quite a bit of inefficiency in the present system, there are certain issues that have to be addressed before we go in for the same as they could become...
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It’s not quite a silver bullet
-The Hindustan Times The government will begin switching over to a system of direct cash transfers for welfare in the New Year and hopes to roll it out all over the country in the ensuing 364 days. This is a radical departure from the existing welfare delivery mechanism so riddled with leaks that a mere fraction of the benefits reach the intended target groups. By co-building these transfers with biometric enumeration...
More »Let The People Choose -Renana Jhabvala
-The Times of India Everyone agrees that India needs to deliver social protection to the aam admi; the forthcoming Food Security Bill is one such attempt. Everyone also agrees that the government service delivery pipelines are riddled with leakages and largescale corruption. Direct cash transfers have been proposed as a way to remedy this defective system. However, as could be expected, the debate has become polarised, with one side believing that cash...
More »Govt to switch to cash transfers to deal with an unwieldy subsidy bill -Siddharth & Surojit Gupta
-The Times of India The government is set to step up its push for cash transfer of subsidies and adopt it as a policy doctrine in the run-up to elections, with two pilot projects validating the assumption that it would lead to significant savings for the government while enhancing benefits for users. A pilot project for cooking gas in Mysore run by state-run oil companies saw the number of connections dropping 40%...
More »Government to implement end-to-end computerisation of food supply
-PTI CHENNAI: Government today said it has decided to implement end-to-end computerisation of food supply in cooperation with states as part of efforts to finetune the Public Distribution System in the country. "To modernise the Public Distribution System, we have decided to have end-to-end modernisation. That is from the godowns of FCI to state Ration Shops, every movement will be computerised", Minister of State for Consumer Affairs,Food and Public Distribution, K V...
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