-Pratirodh.com Social activist and National Alliance of People’s Movement (NAPM) leader Medha Patkar along with other activists demanded resignation of Union Agriculture minister Sharad Pawar for his involvement in Lavasa scam.   Here is the full statement:   Corruption of one politician after another in nexus with the builders and corporations are getting exposed. The scandals which were already investigated and prosecution initiated also are to be re-viewed in the renewed context and taken to...

-Pratirodh.com Biometric data based 12 digit Unique Identification (UID)-Aadhaar Number linked welfare schemes is being bulldozed with 2014 elections in mind with the ulterior motive of altering voting behavior of the citizens by creating a ‘universal identity infrastructure’ linked to ‘unified payment infrastructure’.   Ahead of next parliamentary elections, with the launch of 21st crore UID-Aadhaar Number and Aadhaar Enabled Service Delivery (AESD) on October 20, 2012 contemptuously ignores Parliament, Parliamentary Committee,...

-The Economic Times Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has taken charge of the UPA's initiatives to directly transfer welfare benefits and subsidies into individual beneficiaries' bank accounts - a system that would plug the rampant leakages of funds earmarked for the poor via schemes such as NREGA on which the government spends over 3,00,000 crore annually. A new ministerial co-ordination committee under the PM would now fast-track the architecture for cash transfers while...

Direct cash transfers or food coupons should be used by the government to provide services to the poor, says Farzana Afridi, Assistant Professor, Economics and Planning Unit, Indian Statistical Institute, New Delhi. Afridi, who obtained her PhD in economics from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, and an MA in economics from the Delhi School of Economics, says that although the Mid Day Meal Programme is having a substantial effect, the...

-The Economic Times The economic and social impact of reduction in petroleum subsidies in India will be much lower than perceived if a cash transfer system for directly subsidising vulnerable consumers is successfully implemented, studies commissioned by the Geneva-based International Institute for Sustainable Development have said. The government must, however, dismantle subsidies in a calibrated manner as vulnerable consumers will be able to adjust better if the under-recoveries are gradually eliminated, cautioned...