-The Telegraph New Delhi: The Supreme Court today expressed serious concern over some states' insistence on Aadhaar cards to extend social welfare schemes and other common services to citizens despite its two interim orders that the card should not be made mandatory until the court has decided its constitutional validity. A three-judge bench of Justices J. Chelameshwar, S.A. Bobde and C. Nagappan asked attorney-general Mukul Rohatgi to report to it by tomorrow...

-The Indian Express Response to the crisis of farmer suicides is narrowly focused. Poor health accounts for most suicides, necessitating improved access to healthcare rather than special packages For over a decade, farmer suicides in India has been a serious public policy concern. More recently, this has led to a shrill media outcry and much politicking. The government response to the crisis of farmer suicide has mostly been simplistic and sometimes aggravating....

-Hindustan Times Mumbai: Just how much debt does it take for a farmer in the Vidarbha region of Maharashtra to take the extreme step of killing himself? The shocking findings of a new study reveal it could be as little as Rs 10,000. Days after fresh data from the National Crime Record Bureau (NCRB) revealed that Maharashtra has the highest number of suicides by distressed farmers among all states, a new analysis...

-The Times of India CHENNAI: It is an indication of the distress in the agriculture sector in the country. As many as 5,650 farmers, including 68 in Tamil Nadu, committed suicide last year, mainly due to bankruptcy or indebtedness, family problems and crop failure, said the latest report of the national crime records bureau. The premier central agency has correlated the data for the first time, amid outrage over growing incidents...

-The Telegraph New Delhi: The Centre today urged the Supreme Court to vacate its two-year-old stay on making Aadhaar cards mandatory for welfare benefits, praising the "tremendous success" of a programme Narendra Modi had trashed as a "scam" while in Opposition. Moving an application in the apex court, the government pleaded that the court stay was hobbling various social-sector programmes, including the direct benefit transfer schemes. It said that while beneficiaries' money was...