-The Indian Express Demonetisation: On digital transactions, too, RBI data shows that the volume of electronic payments, after peaking in December 2016 at 957.50 million transactions compared with 671.49 million in November, has been on a decline. New Delhi: When it launched the currency withdrawal in November, the NDA government had outlined four key objectives of the demonetisation exercise: detection of black money, elimination of fake currency, squeezing funds available for...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: State governments may not be able to allot residential plots in cities to serving and former MPs, MLAs, bureaucrats, journalists and judges of their choice by exercising their discretionary power as the Supreme Court on Wednesday decided to frame guidelines for allotting public land at subsidised rates. Expressing concern over state governments' decision to allocate plots to well off people while lakhs of poor people do...

-PTI Non-Performing Govt Schools Should Be Handed Over To Private Players: Niti Aayog Government think tank Niti Aayog has recommended to hand over non-performing or "hollowed" government schools to private players under the public- private partnership (PPP) mode. The Aayog, in its recently released "Three-year action agenda", has recommended that the idea, where the private sector adopts government schools while being publicly funded on a per child basis, can be explored. According to the...

-The Times of India BENGALURU: Contrary to the Centre's claims, contracts signed with foreign firms by the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), custodian of Aadhaar data, show that they got "full access" to classified data including fingerprints, iris scan info, and personal information like date of birth, address and mobile number of the applicants. They were also allowed to store the data for seven years. This was revealed through an RTI...

-The Telegraph New Delhi: Women engaged in farming have converged from across the country in the capital demanding a separate identity as "women farmers" with access to the same rights and entitlements as their male counterparts, besides land records classified according to gender. A key issue pertains to the ownership of land as patriarchy continues to deny women such rights which, in turn, blocks their access to subsidies and other inputs provided...