-Scroll.in The husband said the store refused to give them foodgrains as Shakina, who was too ill to step out, was not present for biometric identification The family of a 50-year-old woman from Uttar Pradesh’s Bareilly claimed she died of starvation on Tuesday because they were denied their monthly quota of cheaper foodgrains as she could not be present at the ration shop for biometric identification, NDTV reported on Wednesday. The district administration,...

-The Hindu Aadhaar-based biometric Authentication does nothing in the battle against graft — there are better alternatives In a sickening way, October 2017 was like October 2002. Fifteen years ago, in Rajasthan’s Baran and Udaipur districts, there was a spate of starvation deaths. The government of the time made up fanciful stories to deny that the deaths had anything to do with hunger or government failure. In October 2017, the death of an 11-year-old...

-Tehelka.com Learning from the recent starvation deaths in Jharkhand, the nation’s leaders must pay heed to the necessity of ensuring food security for all Food and hunger have been important issues this past month and the news has not been welcome. First it was India’s dismal rank in the Global Hunger Index (GHI) 2017 released by the International Policy Research Institute rankings — 100th among 119 countries. GHI looks at undernourishment, child...

-The New Indian Express NEW DELHI: Amid controversial reports of hunger deaths in Jharkhand due to PDS beneficiaries being turned away, economist Jean Dreze says that even official records show that a significant proportion of people are being deprived of food rations every month. In an interview with New Sunday Express, the prime mover behind the NREGA welfare scheme said “this does not mean that Aadhaar is solely responsible for the failures...

-The Economic Times More than 23 lakh customers have received cooking gas subsidy of Rs 47 crore in their respective Airtel Bank accounts they don’t seem to have opened, prompting the government to intervene even as the top mobile operator denied any wrongdoing. Consumers receive cooking gas subsidy in their bank accounts linked to their unique biometric identity, or Aadhaar. But after several consumers lately complained about not receiving subsidy, it emerged...