-The Times of India   Chairman of the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) Nandan Nilekani has said that the unique identity programme or 'Aadhaar' should not be viewed as "a technologically complicated and purposeless activity". "The programme has much wider and scalable applications for ensuring effective and efficient delivery of public distribution system (PDS) and welfare services," he said while delivering the inaugural speech at the launch of the Pune International Centre...

I hear that the Planning Commission is planning to push the poverty line down a few notches so that a lot of folks can now come out bobbing up to the surface. This is being considered not out of some malicious attempt to make really poor people look just plain poor so that the real estate price in your area goes up that wee bit, but to “ensure the adequacy...

-The United Nations   The United Nations educational agency has embarked on a new partnership to train thousands of school principals, beginning in Kenya, Ghana and India, that has the potential to benefit up to 10 million children in the future. The initiative by the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and the Varkey GEMS Foundation, a not-for-profit education organization, is known as the “10,000 Principals Leadership Programme.” “This partnership is an excellent...

About 9% of the country's population comprises scheduled tribes, with over 700 communities, of which 75 are 'primitive tribal groups'. Yet, we found on a number of field trips to Andhra Pradesh, conditions among scheduled and primitive tribes differ according to policy whims, and little else. In a village in Vijanagaram district, we found two distinct tribes living side by side: Kondavara, a scheduled tribe, and Savara, a primitive tribe. The...

-The Hindu Business Line About two-fifths are never born, one-fifth goes missing in infancy and childhood, and remaining two-fifths do so between the ages 15 and 59 There are close to 4 million “missing” poor women in developing countries each year, says a new World Bank report. India accounts for one million of these women. Expressing deep concern at excess female mortality or “missing” females, World Development Report 2012: Gender Equality and...