-Live Mint   Divisions between the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI, or Aadhaar) and the home ministry grew wider on Thursday after the Nandan Nilekani-led entity and the department of information technology (DIT) raised objections to the Resident Identity Card (RIC) scheme. Three high-ranking officials, who spoke independently and on condition of anonymity, said a meeting of the Expenditure Finance Committee (EFC) to clear Rs. 6,790 crore for the home ministry’s RIC...

Home minister P. Chidambaram has set a two-year deadline for completing the National Population Register (NPR). In a release today, his ministry said the register was “likely to be” completed by March 2014, the statement coming a day after the Union budget announced that the Aadhaar platform was ready to support payments for projects like the rural job scheme. Aadhaar, a project of the Planning Commission, is the unique number meant for...

-The Hindu   The ambitious and controversial Unique ID scheme — Aadhaar — received a double boost in this year's budget: not only did Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee sanction Rs. 1,758 crore to enrol 40 crore more residents, but Prime Minister Manmohan Singh also emphasised that the scheme would soon become the main channel through which people could access a wide variety of budget benefits. “I propose to allocate adequate funds to complete...

-The Business Standard The Union Budget for 2012-13 today reinforced the importance of Uniquie Identification programme, as the Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee approved an outlay of around Rs 1,450 crore for Aadhaar. Finance Minister also increased the rollout target for Aadhaar card to an additional 400 million people. The enrolments into the Aadhaar system have already crossed 200 million. “The Aadhaar platform is now ready to support the payments of MGNREGA; old age,...

-PTI The UIDAI's Aadhaar project for providing unique identity numbers to residents, has huge potential to improve the delivery of social sector schemes like rural employment guarantee, the Economic Survey 2011-12 said. "Aadhaar has huge potential for improving operations and delivery of services," the survey said. The Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), attached to the Planning Commission, is engaged in providing residents in the country a Unique Identification number (called Aadhaar) linked...