-The Hindu Press for universal public distribution system Right to Food Campaign—a conglomeration of civil society groups — on Tuesday held a day-long protest at Jantar Mantar here, raising seven questions with MPs on the proposed National Food Security Bill, particularly in relation to people going hungry when the country has surplus food stocks. Rejecting the proposed amendments to the Bill that might reduce beneficiaries and entitlements under the Public Distribution System (PDS),...

-The Hindu Move to improve post-matric scholarship scheme yet to create immediate impact Over 40 per cent of seats earmarked for Scheduled Castes/Scheduled Tribes in engineering courses have gone unfilled at the end of counselling. There is no surprise element this year as the current figure of vacancy conforms to the trend, going by the data of admission and vacancy since 2009, when a sub-quota of three per cent for Arunthathiyars was created...

-The Hindustan Times Under the cover of endorsing a proposal for the National Food Security Bill framed by an independent group of development economists, the government is all set to empty the Bill of any substance. Provisions relating to the Public Distribution System (PDS) will be reduced to a pointless reshuffling of existing foodgrain allocations to state governments, that too in favour of the richer states. And other entitlements, relating for...

-The Times of India The CEO of Natgrid, the government's ambitious project to make a single hub for all data gathered by more than a dozen security agencies, draws a salary of Rs 10 lakh per month -- more than any bureaucrat in the country. And this is besides the other entitlements that he gets at par with top officers in the government. Minister of state for home Jitendra Singh informed the...

UIDAI chief holds discussions with Kiran on project’s progress The Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) is hopeful of covering another 40 crore population under the Aadhar cards in the coming two years. UIDAI chairman Nandan Nilekani said the authority had taken steps to address the shortcomings like duplication and fake enrolments identified during the first phase and efforts were underway to develop Resident Database in all States. Mr. Nilekani told reporters after...