-Al Jazeera Widening wealth gap in Beijing has stoked concerns over its impact on political and social stability. The Chinese government has issued a pledge to narrow the widening income gap between rich and poor, which includes raising its minimum wage and requiring state companies to turn over more profits to pay for social programmes. The pledge on Tuesday promised more spending on health, education and job training but gave few details and...

-The Hindu The architects of the unique identification scheme are yet to provide satisfactory answers to concerns about data security The Aadhaar scheme of the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) is to provide India’s billion-plus people with a unique identification number. Enrolment is not mandatory, though it was mentioned that it would be difficult for people to access public services if not done. The scheme requires individuals to provide their photograph,...

-The Hindu As Kashmir’s civil society and cultural groups remain lifeless, separatists have a field day to get the all-girl band shut Despite Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah’s reassuring tweets, the teenage members of the Valley’s first all-women rock band have gone into hiding immediately after receiving a threat of ‘social boycott’ from the Dukhataarn-e-Millat, a radical women’s outfit. Coming as it did after the fatwa from Kashmir’s head mufti, this...

-The Hindu With the exception of Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah and PDP leader Mehbooba Mufti, hardly anyone of consequence has supported Pragaash, the Valley’s first all-girl rock band, the members of which have gone into hiding after receiving a threat of ‘social boycott’ from the Dukhataarn-e-Millat, a radical women’s outfit. Three fresh Facebook pages have come up with nearly 1,000 supportive posts in the past four days but most...

-The Times of India GUWAHATI: Despite the state government stressing on economic Development of rural areas and hailing its achievements on this front from time to time, over 500 cases of poverty-driven suicides were recorded in the state between 2009 and 2011. The records, compiled in the Statistical Year Book of India 2013 by the Union ministry of statistics and programme implementation earlier in January, revealed that the state recorded a constant...