-Frontline If Budget 2015 is any indication, the Modi government is going beyond what could be called benign neglect of agriculture to policy moves that are likely to harm its viability. IT is scarcely surprising that farmers are upset with the Narendra Modi government. Indeed, the rosy dreams created by that famous campaign advertisement of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), when farmers spoke of the high crop prices and better cultivation conditions...

-The Indian Express It is easy to see why the Unique Identity (UID) project, also known as Aadhaar, has caught the imagination of many administrators, economists and policymakers. Identity verification is a routine problem in India and Aadhaar sounds like a foolproof solution. The idea is really smart and the technology is cutting-edge. After the initial hurdle of universal enrolment, numerous applications are possible: monitoring the attendance of government employees, linking...

-Hindustan Times New Delhi: The number of people who have registered for an Aadhaar identification number in the Capital outstrips its population by over 27%, raising questions about the efficacy of the controversial biometric registration process. About 20 million people have enrolled in Delhi for the unique 16-digit number, 27.6% more than the city's population of 16.8 million, according to the 2011 census. Officials associated with the enrollment process, however, said it was...

-PTI NGOs like Greenpeace are opposing genetically engineered 'Golden Rice' without any basis, green activist Patrick Moore alleged today while pitching for its cultivation. Interestingly, Moore himself was a co-founder of Greenpeace International but later disassociated with the NGO in 1986 due to differences of opinion. He alleged that the Greenpeace is "raising money to oppose 'Golden Rice' without any basis and offering alternatives to address malnutrition". He claimed that the Golden Rice'...

-Outlook Corporate karza maafi reaches new heights, social spending new lows This year's budget write-off in customs duty on gold, diamonds and jewellery (all aam aadmi items, of course) is Rs 75,592 crore. That's well over twice the "record" amount allocated to the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme. As Prof Jayati Ghosh points out, the MNREGA has given billions of person-days of work to tens of millions of poor...