-The Hindu Any political benefit the Congress hopes to reap in 2014 will come at the cost of reducing the effectiveness of social welfare schemes In getting its ministers to endorse the shift to cash transfers from the AICC office in New Delhi, the Congress has highlighted the political nature of the move. The party clearly expects cash transfers to play the same role for it in 2014 that the National Rural...

-One World South Asia Reducing incomes, stagnating yields, increasing costs of cultivation, fragmenting of land-holdings and reducing of institutions credit facilities plot the graph of farmers' suicides in India. A national consultation and public hearing on framers' suicides being organised by Action Aid in the capital brought together experts and policy critics to evaluate the progress of government initiatives to respond to the ongoing agrarian crisis. Suicides are only one extreme symptom of...

-The Hindu Cleansing political parties and elections of illegal money is the first step towards tackling the evil of graft Corruption is nothing but a reflection of the distribution of power within societies. The country is where it is because the political system is self-perpetrating and no party is accountable to anyone except a coterie of people that dominates all decisions. Unless the political system is accountable, going after individual cases of...

-The Indian Express Cash transfers seem to be the latest fad. With elections looming, the Prime Minister’s National Committee on Direct Cash Transfers has been tasked with an ambitious mandate to provide vision and direction to enable direct cash transfers of subsidies under various government schemes and programmes to individuals to enhance efficiency. Certain activists warn against an ill-considered and hasty transition from food to cash. Others believe directly transferring the...

-The Indian Express The UPA has long been planning a shift to direct cash transfers for poor households, with a view to replacing the 3.23 lakh crore worth of unwieldy subsidies currently in place. Last year, the then finance minister Pranab Mukherjee had spoken of the famously inefficient food and fertiliser subsidies, and of a comprehensive overhaul through cash transfers. Now, that plan has been fleshed out further. The prime minister...