-Livemint.com The state is mapping and feeding Aadhaar and biometric information of ration card holders into a server Bengaluru: Karnataka food and civil supplies minister Dinesh Gundu Rao on Wednesday said the state’s fair price shops will go digital within the next three months. The state is mapping and feeding Aadhaar and biometric information of ration card holders into a server. All transactions in the public distribution system (PDS) will have to...

-DNA When it comes to farmers, the government has precious little to offer The monsoon season is over. With 14 per cent shortfall in the amount of rains, and with nearly 39 per cent of the cropped area in the country hit by a crippling drought, I was expecting the Reserve Bank of India governor Raghuram Rajan to announce a series of monetary benefits and exemptions in credit repayments for farmers....

-The Indian Express The voucher scheme is supposed to act as an intervention for LIG and EWS segments who are forced to seek accommodation elsewhere in the face of inadequate social rental housing THE MINISTRY of Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation is considering introduction of subsidies, in the form of direct benefit transfer, that would be provided to economically weaker sections (EWS) and low income group (LIG) households towards their rent payments. The...

-The Economic Times Is publicly funded health insurance pushing poor households to actually spend more on hospitalisation? A study conducted by three public health experts of the Public Health Foundation of India (PHFI) suggests that this could be happening. The study found that a larger proportion of the poorest households are having to make "catastrophic spending" (defined as more than 10% of household expenditure) on hospitalisation and that the amount spent by...

-The Hindu An OECD study shows that better technology in classrooms does not always translate into better learning outcomes. It is time for Indian policymakers to do some soul-searching on our over-reliance on technology in education and the resultant neglect shown to teacher training.The new-age administrators believe that the Internet can address all pedagogic needs. They do not understand curriculum policies or examination reforms. Nor do they appreciate the progressive initiatives...