Bihar Government's programme of distributing bicycles to school girls may be a modest intervention but is leading to big changes. A new research-based paper, brought out in August 2013, corroborates the success of the programme and testifies that it is leading to improved school enrollment of girls and arresting their dropout rates (See links below to read full paper and earlier studies on the subject).   Based on econometric and statistical models,...

-The Hindu The report of the Comptroller and Auditor General underscoring the blatant violation of conservation laws and Supreme Court orders in the diversion of forests for destructive non-forestry use confirms what former Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh said about the system: it's a bit of a joke. The compensatory afforestation mechanism instituted to balance the devastating loss of natural forests has failed abysmally. The CAG's report is proof that India's...

-The Telegraph Kolkata: The state government today set February 28 as the deadline for distributing Aadhaar cards among all Bengal residents, prompting many to wonder about the feasibility of covering over six crore people in little over five-and-a-half months. Providing Aadhaar numbers to all citizens above the age of five is the precursor to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's dream project of rolling out a direct benefit-transfer scheme, replacing the leak-prone subsidy system. The...

-The Hindustan Times The UPA's showpiece direct benefits transfer (DBT) plan is struggling. Poor Aadhaar enrolment clubbed with lack of banking facilities is coming in the way of the anti-poverty programme. Numbers are telling. Two months after the roll out in Rae Bareli, the constituency of Congress president Sonia Gandhi, only Rs. 1,400 has been transferred in Rae Bareli. The district has 6,000 people enlisted for the National Social Security Programme....

-The Hindu     The draft policy on the use of forest land is at odds with sound conservation principles and fails to plug holes in current guidelines that work to the advantage of project promoters The Supreme Court in July 2011 while delivering the Lafarge Judgment laid down guidelines on forest clearance procedures. These were to operate till a new regulatory mechanism was put in place. Two years after the judgment, the Ministry...