-The Times of India The income tax department's '360 degree profiling' had resulted in former corporate lobbyist Niira Radia's contacts with several bigwigs coming to light. She may have fallen off the radar but the government plans to strengthen the mechanism with finance minister P Chidambaram initiating a pilot project with the FIU (Financial Intelligence Unit) to integrate data on all suspicious transactions with the '360 degree' database. Financial transactions of hundreds...

-Outlook Its ploy of Aadhar-hinged cash transfer may have won the Congress political points, but will it really be a game-changer?   State-Wise     40% of the 22 crore Aadhar numbers are in Andhra Pradesh (4.7 crore) and Maharashtra (4 crore)     20% is what the two politically sensitive, Congress-ruled states account for of the 51 districts where DCT will be rolled out     55 lakh Aadhar numbers in TMC-run West Bengal. BJP-ruled Gujarat (57...

-Outlook A scheme to credit kerosene subsidies to beneficiaries’ accounts flopped real big in Rajasthan Dharamvir Chaudhary’s fair price shop in Kot Kasim, Rajasthan, is deserted. A year ago the tehsil played host to an experiment by the government: residents were asked to buy kerosene—a fuel most of India’s poor use to cook and light lamps—at market price (Rs 50 a litre) from shops like Dharamvir’s. People were promised that the...

-The Hindu Initially two lakh Delhi families to be paid Rs. 600 per month United Progressive Alliance chairperson Sonia Gandhi has been urged by Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit to inaugurate the Dilli Annashree Yojana food security scheme under which initially about two lakh families would be paid a sum of Rs. 600 per month from December 15. The Delhi Government, which had set aside Rs. 150 crore for this scheme in its...

-The Hindu Any political benefit the Congress hopes to reap in 2014 will come at the cost of reducing the effectiveness of social welfare schemes In getting its ministers to endorse the shift to cash transfers from the AICC office in New Delhi, the Congress has highlighted the political nature of the move. The party clearly expects cash transfers to play the same role for it in 2014 that the National Rural...