-Reuters RANCHHODPURA, India (Reuters) - Working out of a tiny rented room furnished with a wooden table, small biometric authentication machine and shelf stacked with passbooks, Ganesh Dangi is a one-man bank for a village of 650 people in northwestern Rajasthan. A business correspondent, or local representative, for State Bank of Bikaner and Jaipur (SBBJ) in Ranchhodpura village, 40 km (25 miles) east of Udaipur, Dangi is racing to sign up villagers...
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The Case for Direct Cash Transfers to the Poor-Arvind Subramanian, Devesh Kapur and Partha Mukhopadhyay
The total expenditure on central schemes for the poor and on the major subsidies exceeds the states' share of central taxes. These schemes are chronic bad performers due to a culture of immunity in public administration and weakened local governments. Arguing that the poor should be trusted to use these resources better than the state, a radical redirection with substantial direct transfers to individuals and complementary decentralisation to local governments...
More »Inside the Direct Cash Transfer Debate-Udit Misra
-Forbes India A look at the crucial issues involved Over the past three years, India has vigorously debated the merits of having a Unique Identity (UID) number for each citizen and, allied with it, the move towards direct cash transfers (DCT) of subsidies (like food, fuel and fertilizer) and social security endowments, like pensions and scholarships. On January 1, India took its first steps towards UID-enabled direct cash transfers. But the move has...
More »Train fares to go up from January 21 -Sunderarajan P
-The Hindu In a rather unusual move, the Railway Minister, P.K. Bansal, on Wednesday announced an across the board hike in passenger fares less than two months before he would be presenting the Railway Budget for 2013-14. The hike comes into effect from January 21. However, Mr. Bansal declared that there will be no further fare increase in the ensuing budget. The new hike will range from two paise per km on basic...
More »An insider’s critique -Mahim Pratap Singh
-The Hindu A report prepared by the District Supply Officer (DSO), Alwar, highlights several areas where the pilot scheme falls short. Kotkasim: There are 25,843 ration card holders in Kotkasim district. However, bank accounts for the cash transfer have been opened only for 13,458 card holders – a little over 50%. Villagers asked to use their post office accounts, which were rejected as these accounts do not have online services. Other reasons...
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