-Down to Earth Biometric-based unique identity or Aadhaar is leading to huge problems for people working for the rural employment guarantee scheme and for others receiving welfare benefits. Not only have enrolments been done shoddily but the experience of the pilot projects shows that it is almost impossible to authenticate the work-hardened fingerprints of the poor, find Latha Jishnu and Jyotika Sood. Besides, there is the overwhelming issue of deficient online...

-Express News Service Union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar on Saturday expressed reservations about the new Land Acquisition and Rehabilitation and Resettlement Bill, 2011, saying it would in particular pose hurdles in setting up industries and creating new dams. The Bill was cleared by the Union cabinet in September and has now been sent to the joint legislative committee. Quoting provisions of the Bill, such as the promise to pay five times the market...

-Reuters KHAMMAM (India): It was a deal struck almost 40 years ago by a poor, illiterate Indian farmer, driven by desperation after a drought wiped out his crops and left his family close to starvation. The agreement: 10 acres of land, the size of four soccer pitches, for a mere 10 kg (22 lbs) of sorghum grains. "My father-in-law pawned the land for food," said Kowasalya Thati, lifting the hem of...

Noting that many young people join Indian Police Service (IPS) only when they don't get their first choice of job in the civil services - specifically Indian Administrative Service (IAS) or Indian Foreign Service (IFS) -- a parliamentary panel has suggested a separate examination for IPS where "attitude and aptitude" of aspirants are thoroughly tested so that the quality of 'service' is not compromised. Asking the government to "explore the possibility...

-The Business Standard The Ministry of Rural Development has rejected the demand of a parliamentary standing committee to include the works of artisans, weavers and leather workers in the list of permissible works under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme. The Central Employment Guarantee Council, constituted under the legislation establishing the rural jobs scheme to oversee it, had earlier turned down this recommendation of the standing committee on urban and...