-The Economic Times The government's plan to make the Aadhaar number the centrepiece of the cash-transfer system is now facing opposition from a new quarter: banks. Several banks, led by the State Bank of India, have expressed reservation against jettisoning their current systems in favour of the platform created by the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), which issues the Aadhaar number and wants to make it the basis to authenticate...

-First Post Electoral logic is driving the UPA towards a patent illegality: forcing people to part with sensitive private information such as biometric data or finger-prints without having any law to protect privacy in place. As things stand, getting yourself an Aadhaar card issued by the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) is voluntary; you are not legally bound to part with this information to anyone, leave alone the UIDAI ....

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: Traffic challans will very soon be paid online across the country and will not constitute a court case. The government has written to all states to make online payment of traffic challans mandatory and the ministry of road transport and highways is likely to issue a directive to take challan cases out of the domain of courts. After the intervention of the Prime Minister's Office, the...

-The Times of India It is universally recognised that for ensuring people's participation in governance and holistic development, the best instrumentality is local government. So when Parliament passed the 73rd Constitution Amendment Bill on December 23, 1992 to enshrine the essential features of panchayats in the Constitution, this was hailed as historic. But where do our panchayats stand 20 years after becoming institutions of self-government? A big issue before the founders of...

-The Times of India HYDERABAD: In a move that may provide relief to thousands of undertrials in state jails, the state information commission is planning to direct the government to make public the list of those who are languishing in prisons without trial for a long time, officials said. "We will order the prisons department to immediately make the information on undertrials public under the Right to Information act," saidJannat Hussain, chief...