-The Hindu Out of 20,000 beneficiaries in Ajmer district, only 220 actually received cash Accusing the government of “forcing” people to enrol for an Aadhaar number, social activist and National Advisory Council member Aruna Roy says the performance of the Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) scheme in the first two months has been “dismal,” resulting in “exclusion” of poor beneficiaries. Ms. Roy, a vociferous opponent of linking Aadhaar with welfare delivery, expressed her concerns...

-NDTV Finance Minister P. Chidambaram has earmarked Rs. 10,000 crore as incremental cost to implement the Food Security Bill, which he described as a promise of the UPA government. A centrepiece of the ruling government's campaign in 2009, the Bill was cleared last month by a parliamentary committee. The Bill says 75 per cent of the rural population and 50 per cent of the poor in urban India - about 800 million people...

-PTI Project will help strengthen anti-money laundering steps, combat terror financing, says inter-governmental body Paris: India’s Aadhar programme has been praised by the FATF here which said the initiative will not only ensure “financial inclusion” for its teeming population but also tighten anti-money laundering measures in the country. “If successfully implemented, it (Aadhar project) would be the first biometrically verified unique ID implemented on a national scale and would provide the ‘identity...

-The Economic Times The Direct Benefits Transfer (DBT) scheme commenced with the initial rollout in 20 districts covering seven scholarship schemes. Another 23 districts will be covered by March this year. The intention is to link all government benefits to Aadhaar-based identification of beneficiaries and to channelise the cash benefits through Aadhaar-enabled bank accounts. Irrespective of the merits of translating some benefits delivered in kind like in PDS into their cash-equivalent, for...

-PTI Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit on Friday set a deadline of March 31 for completing issuance of Aadhaar number to people in the city so that all major welfare schemes could be linked to it soon. Dikshit issued the direction at a high-level meeting which reviewed the implementation of direct cash transfer schemes of the central government that was rolled out in two districts of the city last month. As per official...