Boost Aadhaar use for good governance, PM tells states

States should maximise the use of Aadhaar in the interest of good governance to allow better percolation of benefits and plug leakages, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Monday.

Modi, who also praised the Supreme Court for its recent judgment on Aadhaar, was speaking at his first interaction here with bureaucrats, including the chief secretaries of 30 states and Union Territories.

Modi also asked them to list the best practices in their states. The NITI Aayog, which organised the day-long conference, will compile these practices and study them, Aayog vice chairman Arvind Panagariya said later. “The Prime Minister stressed on competitive federalism among states,” he said.

Panagariya said underemployment is probably the biggest economic challenge that India faces right now and added that rapid growth can be achieved by moving workers out of agriculture to industry and from smaller enterprises to bigger ones.

Panagariya’s remarks come at a time when the three-year-old government is facing a barrage of criticism on jobless growth. Last month, Panagariya, in defence of the government, said the claims were “somewhat bogus” .

“Underemployment is probably the biggest economic challenge we face… as many as 44.2 crore workers or 91.2% of the total were employed in agriculture or enterprises with nine or fewer workers,” he said.

Panagariya said that excessive employment in agriculture (46.9%) with lower output (18%) was slowing growth, and tackling that is the way to achieving growth.

“At the aggregate macro level, bringing about rapid growth is most critical — no major success in poverty alleviation is likely without it,” the economist said.

“If we set the output per worker in agriculture equal to one, then output per worker in industry is five and that in services 3.8,” he said.

The Enforcement Directorate on Monday summoned Rajya Sabha MP and daughter of RJD leader Lalu Prasad Yadav’s daughter Misa Bharti in connection to a money laundering probe.

The case pertains to a chartered accountant — “linked” to a firm owned by Misa — was arrested on money laundering charges in May.

A senior ED official said that Misa’s husband Shailesh Kumar, whose alleged involvement is also being looked at by the agency, was supposed to present himself on Monday but he did not turn up. Misa, meanwhile has been asked to be present at the ED Delhi office on Tuesday. The development comes two days after the ED raided three premises in Delhi belonging to Misa and her husband.

According to sources , Misa will be questioned on a sum of ₹90 lakh that was allegedly given by her CA, Rajesh Agarwal, to the Jain brothers who were also arrested on money laundering charges in March this year.

Sources said Agarwal was acting as a “mediator” for Surendra Kumar Jain and Virendra Kumar Jain and paid the amount in 2007-08 to the two, who invested it as share premium in Mishail Packers and Printers Pvt Ltd, a publishing firm in which Bharti and her husband are directors and hold shares.

“Some 1,20,000 shares of the firm were bought during 2007-08 at a rate of ₹100 per share by four shell companies — Shalini Holdings Ltd, Ad-Fin Capital Services (India) Pvt Ltd, Mani Mala Delhi Properties Pvt Ltd, and Diamond Vinimay Pvt Ltd. The same shares were then bought back by Bharti at ₹10 per share,” ED had said in a statement.

NITI AAYOG VC SAYS BIGGEST ECONOMIC CHALLENGE INDIA FACES IS UNDEREMPLOYMENT