-Livemint.com According to a senior BJP minister, a preliminary probe by the Maharashtra government identified these ‘bank accounts without a credible credit history’ Mumbai: The Maharashtra government has spotted nearly 1.5 million suspicious bank accounts it suspects were created merely to grab the benefits of its Rs34,022 crore farm loan waiver. According to a senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) minister who is also a member of the ministerial group on farm loan waiver,...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: You need an Aadhaar number to buy a phone SIM and open a bank account, but as people rush to enroll, some registration centres in the capital are illegally charging them hundreds of rupees for the service that is meant to be free. TOI found centres fleecing applicants in many places. In the Lal Kuan area of Badarpur, South Delhi, Laxmi, who earns Rs 150-200 a...

-Down to Earth MGNREGA budget has declined in real terms over the years, despite claims of “highest ever” allocations In 2004, before India had any legal welfare entitlements for the informal sector, the National Rural Employment Guarantee Bill, was furiously debated in the Parliament and the media. The aim of this legislation was to address the crisis of under employment and unemployment in the rural economy and provide job opportunities through public works...

-Livemint.com 3.9 million of these 4.5 million Maharashtra farmers applied for farm loan waivers online Mumbai: Even as opposition parties in Maharashtra continue to criticize the online procedure to identify the beneficiaries of farm loan waiver, farmers themselves have responded in large numbers to the initiative. By 30 August, more than 4.5 million farmers in the state had enrolled for the scheme and nearly 3.9 million of them had submitted their online...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: Demonetisation and the subsequent push for digitisation has escalated risks relating to cyber crime and India needs to urgently upgrade its defences by setting up a cyber security commission on the lines of the Atomic Energy and Space Commissions, according to an IIT Kanpur study shared with Parliament's committee on finance. Noting that the government has initiated a number of programmes to enhance the participation of...