-The Times of India     NEW DELHI: The Delhi cabinet on Monday "formally approved" the inclusion of 40,000 additional beneficiaries in the old age pension scheme. The approval amounts to regularization of pensioners registered and in receiving financial assistance, even though they exist beyond the cap of 3.5 lakh permitted under the scheme of the social welfare department. The easing of the cap is to tide over a legal crisis and a face-saving exercise...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: Children on the streets of Delhi can now get a unique identity through the UID-Aadhaar programme. The state government's women and child development department has asked NGOs to support the process of enrollment for the biometrics-based identity number that will enable access to social entitlements. After it received a communication from the Unique Identification Authority of India in February regarding enrollment for UID cards for...

-The United Nations United Nations independent experts today called on countries to ensure the post-2015 development agenda focuses on equality, social protection and accountability, noting that one billion people around the world are still living in poverty. "The rise of inequality has severely undermined the achievements of the Millennium Development Goals, or MDGs," the independent experts said in their message to Member States which will meet this week in New York to...

-The Hindu Tiruvannamalai: The field is almost dry but for brief wet patches. Yet, the paddy crop in it is prosperous with grain-rich panicles looking down the earth. The small plot of land located in a nondescript village near Polur thus shines in a State that still debates on whether its farmers can go for Kuruvai crop as there is no promise of water, by saying "You vie for gallons to...

-Frontline The Central government's proposal to hand over the supply of supplementary nutrition to NGOs in the name of "community participation" is surely an invitation for private profiteering on the back of this supposedly public scheme. ENSURING safe and healthy conditions for the reproduction of the population is obviously the most fundamental requirement of any society. So the progress of a society can be determined (and indeed is routinely judged) by the...