Last week, a group of 40 economists wrote an open letter to United Progressive Alliance (UPA) chairperson Sonia Gandhi arguing for cash transfer as a mode of delivery for the proposed National Food Security Act (NFSA). The letter was carried in detail in several newspapers including Mint. The good thing is that there is now almost a consensus, at least among economists, that whatever be the mode of delivery of subsidy,...

-The Times of India   Lawyers of the four district court complexes in the capital on Monday decided to strike work for a day on June 8 to protest against the malady of corruption in society and police swoop on yoga guru Baba Ramdev's supporters on Saturday night to evict them from the Ramlila Maidan. The Bar Associations of Patiala House Court, Tis Hazari Court, Dwarka Court and Rohini Court have...

-The Telegraph   The talks to draft the Lok Pal bill appeared to have hit a wall after the civil society members stayed away from today’s meeting and left the field open for the government to raise the issue of civility. The government, whose representatives went ahead with the meeting, asked the Anna Hazare-led group not to derail proceedings by “raising extraneous issues” and publicly abusing ministers. “We have been called cheats, frauds,...

Cash transfers are now suggested by many as a silver bullet for addressing the problems that plague India’s anti-poverty programmes. This article argues instead for evidence-based policy and informed public debate to clarify the place, prospects and problems of cash transfers in India. By drawing on key empirical findings from academic and grey literature across the world an attempt is made to draw attention to three aspects of cash transfers...

The Right to Information Act (RTI Act), barring certain exceptions, can be used to get information about decisions taken by public authorities, details of public expenditure, status of projects and many other administrative issues. RTI is also used as an effective tool to prevent corruption, and hence, it is essential that citizens use this Act regularly to keep a check on public authorities. In order to get accurate responses, citizens are...