-The Telegraph Guwahati: Apart from Tripura and Sikkim, enrolment for Aadhaar cards remains very low in the northeastern states, with Assam at the bottom of the list. According to figures available with the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), which handles the Aadhaar project, as on November 30, 2014, the percentage of enrolment against the total population was abysmally low in Assam - 0.3 per cent. The trend is not much better in...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: The government on Sunday formally moved to bury the Planning Commission before January 26 with strong support from regional parties. The only resistance came from Congress-ruled states, which failed to garner support, except from the Bihar government controlled by Nitish Kumar, once a supporter of decentralization in decision-making. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who discussed the role of the Planning Commission with chief ministers, had announced the...

-The Hindu Chennai: Tamil Nadu has sought increased role and greater fiscal autonomy for States in the new institution that will replace the Planning Commission. "It is our belief that a Strong Union can emerge only out of strong states and India's governance structure has to incorporate more federal features," Tamil Nadu Chief Minister O Panneerselvam said at a meeting chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi with Chief Ministers to discuss the...

-The Telegraph New Delhi: Bengal appears to have emerged as one of the best performers in implementing the rural job scheme, rising to fourth on the list from being one of the laggards even two years back. According to figures with the rural development ministry, the state has generated over 11.3 crore persondays of work since April, next only to table-topper Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Rajasthan. Till 2012, it was among the...

-The Telegraph New Delhi: A government panel that evaluated Muslims' post-Sachar socio-economic conditions has suggested an anti-discrimination law, targeted mainly at employers, to combat the growing disparity between the community and the rest of the country. The committee, headed by Jawaharlal Nehru University professor Amitabh Kundu, has failed to detect any "sea change on the ground" despite several welfare plans being launched for the community after Sachar's late-2006 report. Like Sachar, the Kundu...