-PTI Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) has joined government and PSU oil firms against the Supreme Court order making Aadhaar card not mandatory for availing social benefits saying, its directive has "very serious implications" in the implementation of welfare schemes. The UIDAI also contended that its order dated September 23, putting the onus on it to check that Aadhaar card should not be given to illegal immigrants, impinges on the jurisdiction...

-Outlook The faecal matter hits the rotary blades, politically-but we're still staring at a sanitation disaster "Indians defecate everywhere. They defecate mostly besides the railway tracks. But they also defecate on the beaches; they defecate on the hills; they defecate on the river banks; they defecate on the streets; they never look for cover." -V.S. Naipaul An Area of Darkness, 1964 Not...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: Agricultural GDP is likely to grow by over 5% this year thanks to the most abundant rains in nearly two decades, a government thinktank has forecast. If the prediction turns out right, it could help tame food inflation, provide a much-needed boost to rural incomes and a knock-on effect on other sectors of the economy. The demand for two-wheelers, tractors and mobiles, in particular, could rise...

-The Telegraph The human resource development ministry today rejected a demand by two state education ministers that the Centre frame a national policy prescribing a uniform salary structure for schoolteachers in states and rules for recruiting them. At a meeting of the Central Advisory Board of Education, the highest advisory body on education that has state education ministers as members, Chhattisgarh's Brijmohana Agrawal and Bihar's P.K. Shahi said the HRD ministry should...

-Outlook Bhubaneswar: Rejecting a UN panel recommendation for halting POSCO's port-to-steel plant project, both the Republic of Korea and the Odisha government today exuded optimism to go for the ground-breaking ceremony of the proposed facility near Paradip early next year. "We are happy that the state government has acquired the land required for POSCO project. I hope everything will be ready and the POSCO project work will start soon," Korean ambassador Joon-gyu...