-The Hindu Aadhaar is mandatory for 28 welfare schemes in three districts The Supreme Court decree that ruled out making an Aadhaar number mandatory for delivery of government services, puts a spoke in the wheel of several ambitious plans announced by several departments of the State government to link crucial services to Aadhaar. These plans range from Direct Benefit Transfer scheme for kerosene and LPG subsidies to using the number to weed out...

-The Economic Times NEW DELHI: The UPA government claims it to be one of its signature achievements, but noted academic and Planning Commission member Abhijit Sen has all but questioned its relevance and, therefore, its existence. Sen, a former economics professor at the Jawaharlal Nehru University, said the Ministry of Minority Affairs, a showpiece in the Congress-led UPA's list of minority friendly moves, had achieved very little. "I am not in favour...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: Even as minority politics takes centrestage in the wake of recent riots in Uttar Pradesh, a report by the Council for Social Development shows how the UPA government has failed to implement the recommendations of the Sachar Committee, with its response to Muslim deprivation at best being "cautious and minimalist". The report said most of the benefits intended for minorities were being cornered by either...

-The Economic Times In the leaky system of welfare delivery, databases are the newest valve that governments are installing to ensure that benefits reach those-and only those -they are intended for. Since December 2012, for instance, the government of Madhya Pradesh has been appending on to the Centre's Socio Economic and Caste Census a host of household-level data: bank account numbers, NREGA card numbers, welfare entitlements, land ownership, whether their house is...

-Outlook Against the backdrop of death of 23 children in the mid-day meal tragedy in Bihar last month, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today said the scheme will be reformed and "concrete measures" will be taken to ensure that meals provide under it are nutritious and cooked hygienically. Addressing the nation from the ramparts of historic Red Fort on the 67th Independence Day, he said the "tragedy" which happened in Bihar should not...