The ecosystem contains several development programmes and substituting existing programmes with cash transfers will lead to a rapid switch-over. Moreover, three broad categories of cash transfer have been identified in development and humanitarian literature—total (direct cash transfer), restricted (conditional cash transfer and vouchers) and contrived (employment programmes).

The trick is to match existing programmes with the right form of cash transfer. Different options are suited to different requirements. Direct, unconditional, cash transfer is the default option. This can be deployed to replace programmes where items citizens need are available in the market, the risk of inflation is low, those chronically poor are in need of repeated and continuing assistance and security of cash transfer is acceptable. Read More

Jyothi Shankaran

    Jyothi’s last role was as Senior Editor with the business news channel Bloomberg TV India. He also worked as News Editor at business-standard.com, the online version of the business newspaper Business Standard. Jyothi is a chemical engineer from the Regional Engineering College, Srinagar.