Mihir Shah, member of the Planning Commission and chairman of the committee to redraft rules and guidelines of NREGA, tells Sreelatha Menon that the Act may also cover farm labourers. The consortium of NGOs that recommended changes in the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) was founded by you, but your suggestions have been criticised. You seem to consider it a lack of demand rather than a supply problem. First, you should...

The Planning Commission has proposed the introduction of a state-funded health insurance programme by 2017 to cover every citizen of the country. The panel has suggested that the government formulate financial incentives for beneficiaries of the insurance programme as well as their employers to encourage them to participate in the plan. “The 12th Plan (2012-17) will explore the possibilities of introducing a government-funded health insurance plan for every citizen along the lines...

-The Times of India   Chairman of the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) Nandan Nilekani has said that the unique identity programme or 'Aadhaar' should not be viewed as "a technologically complicated and purposeless activity". "The programme has much wider and scalable applications for ensuring effective and efficient delivery of public distribution system (PDS) and welfare services," he said while delivering the inaugural speech at the launch of the Pune International Centre...

The finance ministry has put its seal of approval on a proposal to directly transfer subsidies to the bank account of a beneficiary that is linked to her Aadhaar, or unique identification (UID) number. The government has previously articulated its desire to experiment with direct transfers to make its management of subsidies more efficient and ensure benefits actually reach the targeted people. In a notification issued on Tuesday, the finance ministry extended...

-The Hindu   The government on Tuesday extended the terms of reference of the Nilekani task force on direct transfer of subsidies to include an Aadhaar-enabled unified payment infrastructure. Set up by the Union Finance Ministry under the chairmanship of Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) chief Nandan Nilekani in February, the task force was asked to recommend and implement a solution for direct transfer of subsidies on kerosene, LPG and fertiliser to...