-The Hindu Experts and activists say the complex problem cannot be prevented merely by monetary handouts meant to retain girls in school Kolkata: Dipali, Manju and Sahanara (names changed) were all beneficiaries of West Bengal’s most talked about conditional cash transfer scheme, Kanyashree. However, despite being beneficiaries of the scheme, which according to the State government has 56.09 lakh beneficiaries so far, these THRee young women were trafficked between 2016-18. Of the THRee trafficking...

-Newsclick.in New GDP numbers show the deep agrarian crisis and an economy in doldrums, while unemployment continues to grow. Advance estimates of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) for the current year 2018-19, and estimates for the third quarter (Sept-Dec 2018) show unmistakeable signs of a slowing economy, despite the flawed method of calculating these estimates. The country’s economy will grow by 7% in the current year which will end this March. Last year...

-The Hindu Business Line Pune: Noticing that some banks had diverted the first instalment of Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi (PM-Kisan) scheme to farmers’ loan accounts, the Maharashtra government has instructed banks to return the money to farmers. Speaking to BusinessLine, Maharashtra’s Commissioner of Agriculture, Suhas Diwase, said that banks that had diverted the PM-Kisan instalment to farmers’ loan accounts have reversed the transactions after the government’s instructions: “There are strict instructions...

-The Hindu A basic income scheme will deliver benefits to the poor only if it comes on top of public services The idea of a universal basic income (UBI) is gaining ground globally. It has supporters among the political left and right, and among proponents as well as opponents of the free-market economy. A UBI requires the government to pay every citizen a fixed amount of money on a regular basis and...

-The Hindu Business Line The Union Cabinet has relaxed a condition that requires small and marginal farmers to seed their Aadhaar numbers with their bank accounts for getting the second instalment of payments under the Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi (PM-Kisan) scheme. While clearing the scheme on February 1, the government had made it mandatory for farmers with less than 2 hectares of land to get Aadhaar seeding done for the second...