-The Business Standard UID can shift focus from the government's functioning to the intended beneficiaries and ease of access The central government is seriously thinking of putting in place a technology-based platform to hand over subsidies directly into the hands of their intended beneficiaries. A number of pilots are under way for handing over, for example, kerosene subsidies for household consumption. While this is largely a central government initiative, state governments...

-The Hindustan Times The Maharashtra police are likely to drop the charges against the two Palghar women for their comments on Facebook protesting the shutdown of Mumbai after the death of Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray on November 17. The police are also likely to initiate punitive action against the cops who arrested them. An inquiry report on the incident was submitted to chief minister Prithviraj Chavan on Saturday, indicting senior and junior...

-The Hindu Centre asked to respond to plea for scrapping Armed Forces Act The Supreme Court, expressing concern over extra judicial killings, has asked the Centre and the Manipur government to look into the issue with the utmost seriousness. A Bench of Justices Aftab Alam and Ranjana Desai, hearing a writ petition complaining of mass fake encounter killings, told counsel for the Manipur government on Friday: “You people are killing each other. You...

-The Hindu Act needs urgent amendments in order to plug loopholes in implementation: Union Minister The Union Government will bring in amendments to the Scheduled Castes/Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989, during the Budget session of Parliament next year. Addressing a National Dalit Adivasi Sammelan at Ramlila Maidan here on Friday, Union Minister for Social Justice & Empowerment Kumari Selja said the Act needed urgent amendments in order to plug loopholes in...

-The Hindu By not informing Ajmal Kasab of his right to seek a judicial review of the rejection of his mercy petition, the UPA government has committed a serious wrong The hurried and secretive hanging of Mohammad Ajmal Amir Kasab is both an administrative wrong and a constitutional impropriety. The Manmohan Singh government and the UPA chairperson, Sonia Gandhi, owe it to the nation and the whole world to explain why their...