-The Economic Times On November 9, 2012, the government announced that from January 2013, 51 districts of the country would be subjected to Aadhaar- based direct cash transfers (DCT). We need some basic answers before we get to term the initiative as a game-changer. Aadhaar and the link with bank accounts: The Reserve Bank of India, initially having notified that Aadhaar number as valid for opening a bank account for know-your-customer norms,...

-Outlook Rejecting contentions that government is implementing the Aadhar enabled Direct Benefit Transfer (cash transfer) system in a hurry, Finance Minister P Chidambaram told Rajya Sabha today that the measure being implemented step by step will eliminate leakages, delays, duplicacies and falsification. "It will lead to seamless transition. We believe that the new system, which we will introduce, will be more transparent. It will eliminate leakages, delays, duplicacies and falsification. Government firmly...

-The Indian Express FDI in retail will bring competition to non-tradable services, and make Indian firms globally competitive India removed barriers to trade in goods in the 1990s. Removing protection brought global competition and raised productivity. But introducing global competition in services is harder. In certain services that are tradable, like legal or financial services, the removal of trade barriers can introduce competition and increase productivity. But these often involve complicated and...

-Outlook The government has not made any assessment on presumptive losses following the CAG report on the 2G spectrum issue, Parliament was informed today. "No assessment of the value of presumptive loss caused to the nation after the publication of CAG report in 2G spectrum matter has been made by the Government of India," Minister of State for Finance Namo Narain Meena said in a written reply in the Rajya Sabha. To a...

-The Indian Express Amendments to the contentious land acquisition Bill not only seek to hasten the acquisition process through tight time-schedules but also contain a provision that virtually allows the law to be applied retrospectively to cases that witnessed protests in the past. The union cabinet is due to discuss the amendments to the Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Bill on Thursday. The changes suggest that the new law will be applicable to...