-The Hindu The imposition of Aadhaar-based biometric authentication in the Public Distribution System threatens to disrupt recent progress with PDS reforms. It also deprives millions of people of essential food entitlements. India’s Public Distribution System (PDS) has improved steadily during the last 10 years. The system used to be most ineffective and corruption-ridden, with leakages of around 50 per cent at the national level, going up to 80 or 90 per cent...

-The Hindu The pursuit of full employment of labour cannot primarily rely on domestic private investment, much less FDI. Only public investment will steady us in the long run. We are increasingly told that the inflow of capital — particularly the foreign direct investment (FDI) variety — increases employment levels and contributes to economic growth. In a rare interview given to The Wall Street Journal in May, Prime Minister Narendra Modi reinforced...

-The Hindu NABARD to manage Rs. 77,000-cr. corpus for scheme. India’s apex rural-development bank will manage a Rs. 77,000-crore corpus as part of a Central government push to complete 99 unfinished irrigation projects across the country by 2019, and bring water to 76.03 lakh hectares. The contours of the scheme were first made public by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley in his Budget speech this February and involve finishing 149 projects overdue since...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: If true, this is the 21st century avatar of the unspeakable practice of untouchability. If true, this will point out who Dalit students are, to the Rest of the student community, furthering discrimination. Dalit students at the Lajpat Rai DAV College in Jagraon have alleged that authorities have instituted a separate biometric attendance system just for them, ANI reported on Tuesday. "A separate biometric for SC (Scheduled...

-Livemint.com Except people in high-income countries, most of the world cannot afford the fruits and vegetables they need, according to research in ‘Lancet’ New Delhi: Three in four Indians are yet to taste the fruits of economic growth—or indeed, its veggies. Recent research published in the British medical journal Lancet calculates fruit and vegetable intake among people of different countries, on the basis of gross national income per person. The research finds that the...