-Live Mint In Parliament address, Mukherjee says direct cash transfers will cut leakages and bring benefits to the poorest Acknowledging that growing aspirations, particularly among the youth, are going largely unmet, the government has signalled a policy makeover, including undertaking “difficult decisions”. The Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) also indicated that it was looking to the direct benefit transfer scheme based on the Aadhaar or unique identity system to restore the feel-good factor...

-The Economic Times The Supreme Court has sought the Centre's view on inclusion of tribal people in the mainstream, saying they should be allowed to choose facilities such as roads, schools, hospitals and electricity in the wider debate over preservation of their habitat. The remarks were made by a three-judge bench on Wednesday in response to Solicitor General Mohan Parasaran's opposition to the Odisha government's plan to mine the Niyamgiri hills...

-The Times of India To remove various disadvantages that women face in India, the Union government introduced Gender Responsive Budgeting (or Gender Budgeting) in 2005-06. It meant that high-flying promises on empowering women were to be backed by financial outlays and that a gender perspective was to imbue all policy making. It was always a tough call - from the home, to the workplace and generally in society women are treated like...

-IANS Banking services were paralysed, coal production came to a halt, and transportation was hit in Andhra Pradesh by the two-day nation-wide strike called by major trade unions, which began Wednesday. Bank services in Hyderabad and the rest of the state were totally paralysed as over 70,000 employees of public sector banks joined the strike. Coal production came to a halt in the mines of the state-owned Singareni Collieries, with 65,000 workers in...

-The Business Standard Implement it with watershed development schemes to alleviate poverty The United Progressive Alliance government appears to be upbeat regarding the prospects of its flagship scheme, the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), which provides a universal, self-targeting guarantee of 100 days of employment to every household in all rural districts of India. “MGNREGA has tremendous potential to increase agricultural production, which we have not been able to...