-The Hindu Separate buses for schoolboys and schoolgirls, overcoats for girls, ban on mobile phones on campuses and restricted interaction of girls and boys — these are the steps the Puducherry government has decided on to enforce to prevent harassment of girl students. The measures came after a meeting between Education Minister T. Thiagarajan and principals in the wake of the rape of a 17-year-old student by two men on Tuesday. By reducing...

-The Economic Times The government has done well to scale down the initial reach of the direct cash transfer system of handing out subsidies. Direct benefit transfer (DBT), as it is called now, will cover only 20 districts and seven scholarship schemes instead of 51 districts and 34 schemes planned earlier. Limiting coverage makes eminent sense. It is better to do a thorough job than to fumble at a mammoth task,...

-Huffington Post As we start 2013, many people will be thinking about plans and promises to improve their diets and health. We think a broader collection of farmers, policy-makers, and eaters need new, bigger resolutions for fixing the food system -- real changes with long-term impacts in fields, boardrooms, and on plates all over the world. These are resolutions that the world can't afford to break with nearly one billion still...

-The Times of India The Delhi government has put out public notices declaring that an Aadhaar card will be compulsory from January 1 for access to every government service. The notice has left people confused for lakhs of Delhiites are yet to be enrolled under the Aadhaar programme. On Saturday, Nandan Nilekani represented the UIDAI at the launch of Delhi Government's Annshree Yojana which is cited as the first Aadhaar UID-enabled scheme....

—AP Envoys from nearly 90 nations signed on Friday the first new U.N. telecommunications treaty since the Internet age, but the U.S. and other Western nations refused to join after claiming it endorses greater government control over cyberspace. The head of the U.N. telecoms group pushed back against U.S. assertions, defending the accord as necessary to help expand online services to poorer nations and add more voices to shape the direction of...