-The Indian Express Delhi’s slums house people whose work makes the lives of its better-off citizens easier but they themselves offer the worst of living conditions. Lakhs of people are denied the basic need for a toilet, breeding indignity and infections. The city’ urban shelter agency DUSIB’s report on how to make the city slum-free is a challenge for any government, especially one elected on a pro-poor agenda. The Indian Express...

-Hindustan Times Some state governments have made the unique identification, or Aadhaar, number mandatory for basic rights such as employment under a rural jobs scheme and electoral enrolment despite a Supreme Court order that the 12-digit biometric number is not necessary for government entitlements. Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh and Rajasthan are some of the states that have prescribed the Aadhaar number to get government entitlements from April 1, the start...

-The Indian Express Indian farmers are under stress this year. Earlier, many of them lost their crops in the kharif season, which was almost a drought with monsoon rains falling 12 per cent below their long-period average. Now unseasonal rains have impacted them adversely in the rabi season. Agri-GDP growth this year, expected to be a meagre 1.1 per cent before the unseasonal rains, may fall flat to just zero, if...

-The Times of India CHENNAI: The industrial sector has been taking the flak for emitting high levels of hazardous gases over the years but it might ultimately be our homes that are responsible for the highest emission of greenhouse gases. A recently published study conducted by the Centre for Ecological Sciences of the Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru, found that the domestic sector was one of the highest contributing factors to greenhouse...

-Hindustan Times New Delhi: The number of people who have registered for an Aadhaar identification number in the Capital outstrips its population by over 27%, raising questions about the efficacy of the controversial biometric registration process. About 20 million people have enrolled in Delhi for the unique 16-digit number, 27.6% more than the city's population of 16.8 million, according to the 2011 census. Officials associated with the enrollment process, however, said it was...