The Prime Minister's Office has asked ministries to take up the implementation of the direct cash transfer scheme on a war footing before the launch of the programme on January 1. It has also asked them to organise camps to fast pace enrolment under Aadhaar for the purpose. The primary activity of all the ministries implementing schemes in the coming weeks will be to complete enrolment of Aadhaar for all beneficiaries.
The government will launch the payout of direct cash subsidy to people through the Aadhaar based system in 51 districts of the country from January 1, Finance Minister P Chidambaram said.
As the government races to launch its flagship direct cash transfer programme from January 1, the low concentration of Aadhaar card database in the identified 43 districts is a cause of major concern
Govt expects to save Rs 10,000 crore through this move.
Governments should move away from universal subsidies towards tightly targeted transfers, backed by stricter eligibility norms, sunset clauses and periodic audits to curb leakages and improve spending efficiency, a joint study by Asian Development Bank and PwC has recommended.
Rs 7,024 cr transferred under LPG cash subsidy scheme.
A car dealer from Faridabad has been detained in connection with the Red Fort blast case. Delhi Police has directed second-hand car dealers to verify and share details of recent vehicle sales.
The payment mechanism is aimed at checking corruption and pilferage in the social sector schemes that seek to promote financial inclusion.
Having made Aadhaar mandatory for receiving subsidised cooking gas (LPG) in 19 districts, Oil Minister M Veerappa Moily on Wednesday said the unique identification card will no longer be a must for giving subsidises unless cleared by the Supreme Court.
Full country coverage, in stages, by April 2014; UIDAI, FinMin given prime responsibility to work with ministries, states for national coverage.
If the LPG consumer does not have an Aadhaar number, he can directly receive subsidy in his bank account without the use of Aadhaar number
New schemes allows consumers without Aadhaar to receive cash directly in their bank accounts
UPI has catapulted India into the forefront on the global digital payments landscape. Working hand in hand, the AePS payments system is making life easy for rural folks, notes Tamal Bandyopadhyay.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Tuesday asked fintech firms to focus on risk management at a time when criminals are using AI to mimic voices, clone identities and create lifelike videos to manipulate people.
Aadhaar, an ambitious initiative of the previous government, has been used to initiate mandatory attendance for government officials, prisoner identification and by linking it to passports, mobile SIM cards and provident fund accounts.
Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Monday launched payment of cash in lieu of the additional 5 kg of rice to beneficiaries under the government's 'Anna Bhagya' scheme.
India's deployment of a direct cash transfer scheme and other similar social welfare programmes is a "logistical marvel", the International Monetary Fund (IMF) said on Wednesday. "From India, there is a lot to learn. There is a lot to learn from some other examples around the world. "We have examples from pretty much every continent and every level of income. "If I look at the case of India, it is actually quite impressive," Paolo Mauro, deputy director of the Fiscal Affairs Department at the IMF, told reporters at a news conference in Washington.
One out of every two Indians would have Aadhaar number by the middle of 2014, UIDAI Chairman Nandan Nilekani has said as he underlined the unique attributes of the identification system that will lead to public sector reform and governance transformation.
Cash transfer is targeted at the poor, but Aadhaar which will be at the core of the direct transfer process -- has no role in identifying the poor.
With UPA facing allegations of corruption, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Saturday said his government wants to use new technology to curb dishonesty and bring transparency in governance.
Domestic cooking gas consumers in Delhi and Mumbai will from Wednesday get cash subsidy for buying cooking gas refils as the Direct Benefit Transfer for LPG (DBTL) Scheme will be extended to 105 more districts.
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Wednesday released draft guidelines for streamlining the onboarding and monitoring of Aadhaar Enabled Payment System (AePS) operators to counter frauds perpetuated through the ecosystem. Banks and the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) are required to comply with these directions within three months from the date of issue of the guidelines.
Only Rs 3,000 cr has been disbursed. Over 80% of these transfers were for cooking gas subsidy.
80% of beneficiaries in 300 districts to be linked with direct benefits transfer
Whether it was the MGNREGS or the NFSA or the Aadhaar-based DBT scheme for cash transfer, the Modi government has built on the basic architecture created by the Singh government. Policy makers in the Modi government, instead of discarding them as products of the previous political regime, worked on them, expanded their scope and reach, and used new tools to improve their performance, explains A K Bhattacharya.
Describing DBT for LPG as a 'tremendous success,' Oil Minister M Veerappa Moily said the programme, when implemented throughout the country, would help save Rs 8,000-9,000 crore (Rs 80-90 billion) of subsidy from going to unintended beneficiaries.
While about 2,000 beneficiaries were transferred an amount of Rs 35 lakh (Rs 3.5 million) on the Aadhaar platform, the figure is expected to go up on Thursday.
The Aadhaar-enabled payment system, or AEPS, allows consumers who don't have smartphones or debit cards to perform basic banking transactions like cash deposit, cash withdrawal, intrabank or interbank fund transfer, balance enquiry and obtaining a mini statement through biometric authentication at micro-ATMs.
The ministry, under Ravi Shankar Prasad, will soon prepare a Cabinet note for bringing Aadhaar under its administrative jurisdiction.
Former chairman of the UIDAI Nandan Nilekani, elucidates how Aadhaar could become the spine for alternative banking and could replace government services with cash benefits.
The Direct Benefit Transfer for LPG scheme was rolled out in 291 districts from June 1, 2013 in six phases to do away with the practice of selling the fuel at below cost rates.
The Delhi high court on Wednesday asked the Centre and the Delhi government to present their stand on a plea seeking recall of all currency notes above Rs 100, restricting cash transactions above Rs 10,000 and linking assets worth more than Rs 50,000 with Aadhaar to check corruption.
However, ration card, driving licence, voter identity card, Kisan passbook with photo, job card issued under MGNREGS and a certificate issued by a gazetted officer or a tehsildar will be admissible as proof of identity for people to get the benefits under the scheme till the time they get Aadhaar.
Apart from Bihar, Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand, where none of the estimated 6.7 million construction workers got cash transfer benefits, the coverage of the construction workers was the lowest in Delhi, where only about 5 per cent of the estimated workers received cash under the PMGKY, followed by Kerala and Uttar Pradesh (22 per cent), among major states. In India, construction workers belong to the unorganised sector but account for the highest share of non-farm jobs after manufacturing.
Data mining with the object of ensuring that resources are properly deployed to legitimate beneficiaries is a valid ground for the state to insist on the collection of authentic data
In a nation divided by many things, the 12-digit unique identity number is holding lives to ransom.
In other welfare schemes, such as those for cooking gas, pension and scholarships, which are linked to DBT, cash is transferred directly into the bank accounts of beneficiaries.
The government appointed panel will look at the difficulties consumers faced in receiving the subsidy after buying gas cylinders at market rates.
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) will launch the Unified Lending Interface (ULI) nationwide in due course, aiming to transform India's lending sector, similar to how the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) revolutionised the payments ecosystem, Governor Shaktikanta Das said on Monday.
Unified Payments Interface launched to simplify mobile banking.
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