-The Economist   Opposition to the world’s biggest biometric identity scheme is growing FOR a country that fails to meet its most basic challenges—feeding the hungry, piping clean water, fixing roads—it seems incredible that India is rapidly building the world’s biggest, most advanced, biometric database of personal identities. Launched in 2010, under a genial ex-tycoon, Nandan Nilekani, the “unique identity” (UID) scheme is supposed to roll out trustworthy, unduplicated identity numbers based on...

-The Hindu   For the first time, the 62-year old Election Commission has ordered the photographing of all voters of Manipur on January 28, when the State goes to the polls, in order to prevent rigging and impersonation. Chief Election Commissioner S.Y. Quraishi and Election Commissioners V.S. Sampath and H.S. Brahma took the decision on Thursday at Imphal, where they reviewed the poll preparedness with State government officials and representatives of political parties....

The Congress today appears besieged and beleaguered with key allies and even members from its own ranks lining up behind the combined Opposition in vehemently opposing the Manmohan Singh government’s decision to allow FDI in multi-brand retail. But, paradoxically, this state of siege — reflected by the prolonged deadlock in Parliament with a quasi no-confidence motion hanging over it — also gives the Grand Old Party a great opportunity not just...

There is nothing wrong in having advisory groups. But there is a problem when groups not constituted legally cross the line of demands, advice and rights-based, democratic agitation. The 1990s saw marketing whiz kids at the largest English daily in the world steal a term then in vogue among sexually discriminated minorities: PLUs — or People Like Us. Media content would henceforth be for People Like Us. This served advertisers' needs...

The state Election Commission will crosscheck its Electoral Roll data with the database of the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) as part of its target of 100 per cent Photo Electoral Roll (PER) in Uttar Pradesh. The details of NREGA beneficiaries and their photographs in the database, wherever available, will be used for updating the PER. The EC recently sent a letter to the Chief Electoral Officer of Uttar Pradesh expressing...