-TheWire.in Given the negative impact biometric point of sales machines have had in Jharkhand and Rajasthan, the group urged Bihar to continue its own PDS reforms. A group of economists and social scientists have urged Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar to not buckle under pressure from the Centre to use Aadhaar-based point of sales (PoS) machines for the distribution of rations under the public distribution system (PDS). These machines have been found...
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Dark clouds over the PDS -Jean Dreze
-The Hindu The imposition of Aadhaar-based biometric authentication in the public distribution system threatens to disrupt recent progress with PDS reforms. It also deprives millions of people of essential food entitlements. India’s public distribution system (PDS) has improved steadily during the last 10 years. The system used to be most ineffective and corruption-ridden, with leakages of around 50 per cent at the national level, going up to 80 or 90 per cent...
More »Expenditure on freebies not transparent: Report
-The Hindu The government incurred an expenditure of about Rs. 5,049 crore in 2014-15. Chennai: The State’s accounting of expenditure on freebies is not clear and does not transparently disclose the nature of details, said the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) report for the year ended March 2015. The report pointed out schemes like free distribution of laptops, marriage assistance schemes, free supply of grinders, mixies, fans, Chief Minister’s Comprehensive Health...
More »Health in India: Where the money comes from and where it goes? -Samarth Bansal
-The Hindu It has long been argued that government spending on health should increase to 2.5 per cent of GDP. National Health Accounts (NHA) monitors the flow of resources in a country’s health system and provides detailed data on health finances. The NHA estimates for India for the financial year 2013-14 were published earlier this week, after a long void of almost a decade. The previous estimates were for the year 2004-05. In...
More »From plate to plough: Seeds of change - Shweta Saini & Ashok Gulati
-The Indian Express On Independence Day, we salute our freedom fighters. We also remember Lal Bahadur Shastri who gave us the slogan, jai jawan, jai kisan. PM Modi needs to move from slogans to action to transform agriculture. Atal Bihari Vajpayee expanded the slogan to jai jawan, jai kisan, jai vigyan. The present government has an array of slogans for the farmers. Prime Minister Modi has coined so many — swacchh bharat,...
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