The National Committee on Direct Cash Transfers has decided to roll out Direct Benefit Transfers from 1 January 2013 in 43 identified districts. The purpose of Direct Benefits Transfer is said to ensure that benefits go to individual’s bank accounts electronically, cutting down delays and diversions.

The recent Bodo-Muslim killings in the Kokrajhar and Chirang districts of western Assam have confirmed many in India that the Northeast is only a region of conflicts. It has also reopened the debate on the immigrants, particularly from Bangladesh. One cannot doubt that ethnic conflicts have been intrinsic to the Northeast.

Uncontrolled immigration in Assam has not only angered locals, but also provided them an excuse to mistreat all immigrants: illegal, Muslims, Bangladeshis or otherwise.

August 7. 2012: The Bodo-inhabited Kokrajhar district in western Assam was tense from early July, when two Bengali-speaking Muslim men were found murdered. Two more were killed on 19 July. The next day, four former cadres of the Bodo Liberation Tigers were found dead in a Muslim-majority village in the district.

Thomas P. Greene, SJ, Sec. for Social and International Ministries.

Walter Isaacson, the biographer of Steve Jobs, the founder of Apple whom many consider one of the most innovative and creative thinkers of our time, recently wrote an article for the New York Times in which he described the various influences that led to Jobs’ success.