-Outlook Maharashtra government today declared as drought-affected more than 6000 villages in Aurangabad, Pune and Nashik districts of the state. "A total of 6,250 villages, having crop yield less than fifty paise are drought-affected," Minister for Relief and Rehabilitation Dr Patangrao Kadam said, adding various measures like organising fodder camps and pressing water tankers into service to cater to villagers are being launched. Kadam said as many as 2,894 villages in Aurangabad district...

-The Business Standard A decision has been taken to gradually initiate Aadhaar and non-Aadhaar based LPG subsidy transfer through the OMCs  Having capped subsidised LPG cylinder to six, the government plans to move to a single price for domestic LPG by directly transferring subsidy to consumers with or without Aadhaar number. A committee of officials from ministries of petroleum, banking, expenditure, finance and UIDAI will prepare a white paper on the modalities...

-The Telegraph The Planning Commission has accepted a proposal by scientists to create new academic centres for cognitive science, cyber security and other fields to be shared by scholars and faculty from universities across India. The proposal for inter- university centres (IUCs) is among key initiatives in science and technology planned during the 12th Five-Year Plan that covers the period up to 2017, K. Kasturirangan, a member of the Planning Commission, told...

-Economic and Political Weekly  The Government of India is considering a proposal to notify farming as an essential service. This is ostensibly to bring drought relief to farmers suffering from a weak monsoon - a laudable goal indeed. However, if farming is deemed an "essential service", farmers and farm workers could lose many of their political and civic rights because the government can then invoke the Essential Services Maintenance Act to...

-The Economic Times The Prime Minister's Office is pushing for a multi-pronged strategy to 'prevent and contain malicious use of internet and social media', indicating the government's seriousness in regulating the cyberspace. At an August 27 meeting in the PMO, attended by heads of all intelligence agencies, as well as representatives from the ministries of home, telecom and IT, the government decided to set up an 'appropriate regime' that will address issues...