-The Business Standard Cash transfer is targeted at the poor, but Aadhaar has no role in identifying the poor The disbursement of subsidies through direct cash transfers is round the corner. It will begin in 51 districts in the new year, just over a month away, and in half the country in four months’ time. So it is important to ask: do we have the capability to take on this job,...

-Outlook State-owned banks have been asked to strictly adhere to the March, 2014 time-line for converting all Kisan Credit Cards (KCCs) to ATM cards, Finance Minister P Chidambaram today said. "All KCCs will be converted to ATM cards. I have impressed upon all chairpersons of the banks that this time-line must be strictly adhered to," Chidambaram said following a meeting with the chief executives of state-run banks. State-owned lenders were asked to convert...

-The Times of India The government is moving rapidly to enable cash transfers through the Aadhar platform with 51 districts to be covered by January 1, 2013, and half the country four months later — a bid to rollout an initiative aimed at streamlining subsidies while also earning votes. The plan is to put money directly into bank accounts of beneficiaries of government schemes like scholarships, cheap food under the Public Distribution...

-The Indian Express Economy Govt drafts plan to boost farming, allied sectors with Central fund. Kolkata: To boost the state’s economy, the Trinamool Congress government has set up an ambitious target of 8 per cent growth rate in agriculture and allied sectors for the next fiscal year. The current growth rate in agriculture is a mere 2.6 per cent. A draft proposal prepared by the Agriculture Department on the ways to achieve the...

-The Economic Times Pan Singh Tomar, the legendary steeplechase athlete-turned-dacoit, earned an annual salary of 120 or thereabouts from the Indian Army, where he served as a hawildar in the 1950s. These days, his great grandson roams around their ancestral village dispensing similar amounts to those at the bottom of the Indian pyramid. If Tomar Sr had resorted to guns for the latter part of his life, Anuj Singh Tomar too has...