-The Pioneer Ranchi: A large number of ration card holders from Nagri and activists of Right to Food Campaign, led by noted socio-economist Jean Drèze on Monday marched to Raj Bhawan demanding immediate withdrawal of  ‘Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) for Food subsidy’  and restore the old system of providing rice at Re 1 per kg to the poor people at ration shops. Drèze, who was stopped at Raj Bhawan by the district...

  Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) or cash transfer might appear attractive on papers, but in reality it is opposed by its beneficiaries when implemented. Something similar to this has happened in the Nagri block of Ranchi district, where cash is being transferred to the aadhaar seeded bank accounts of beneficiaries in lieu of providing subsidized foodgrains. Cash transfers in the public distribution system (PDS) have been in operation in the Nagri block...

-Macroscan.org Indian banking today is at a tipping point. Banks are burdened with non-performing assets, incurring significant losses due to provisioning and unable to sustain credit growth, and therefore changes are both necessary and inevitable. There are possible strategies with very different implications: many leading banks could be restructured with state support and encouraged to regain the status they had as major instruments of development policy in the two decades after...

-The Hindu The approved methodology for auction of coal mines / blocks for sale will prioritise on transparency and ease of doing business. The Centre opened up commercial coal mining for the private SECtor on February 20. About 70% of power generated in India uses coal. Domestic coal has been able to meet only 75% of our annual coal demand. * What is the significance of the move? The government has termed it the...

-PTI Finance Minister Arun Jaitley today ruled out privatisation of public SECtor banks as a response to the Rs 11,400-crore fraud hitting Punjab National Bank, saying the move may not be politically acceptable. Speaking at an event, he said a lot of people have started talking of privatisation in the aftermath of the PNB fraud. “This (privatisation) involves a large political consensus. Also, that involves an amendment to the law (Banking Regulation...