Question

The government of India has
launched a scheme of 'cash transfers
to the people below poverty line!
Would you consider these transfers
as a part of domestic income of the
country? (3 marks)​

Answer 1

Answer:

While India was no stranger to cash transfers, the size and scale involved in creating the world’s largest database of demographic and biometric data to restructure the delivery of welfare entitlements was unprecedented. Prior to this reform, the Indian government had operated centrally administered cash-transfer programs like targeted unconditional pensions to the elderly, the differently abled, and widows through the National Social Assistance Program, as well as a program called the Janani Suraksha Yojana, which seeks to improve maternal and neonatal outcomes by using cash to incentivize institutional deliveries.

The 2014–15 Economic Survey proposed implementing DBT using what became known as the JAM trinity—an effort to link individuals’ PMJDY accounts, Aadhaar numbers, and mobile phone numbers—so as to plug leakages, improve beneficiary targeting, and securely distribute benefits.