-The Hindu Raises questions about violation of SC orders and insurance regulator’s norms Chennai: Despite the government extending the deadline for linking Aadhaar to various services to March 31, 2018, many insurance companies are insisting that customers part with their Aadhaar details for Accessing their services. Principal among such insurers is the Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC), whose newly designed web portal requires mandatory registration of policy holders’ Aadhaar details to even...

-The Economic Times Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has given ample hint that Budget 2018 is going to be a farmer's Budget. Jaitley has said the agriculture sector is the top priority for the government because the country's economic growth is not justifiable and equitable unless the benefits were clear and evident in the farm sector. After launching options trading in guar seed on commodity exchange NCDEX yesterday, Jaitley said, "We see in...

- The Hindu Centre for Politics and Public Policy Aadhaar's principal goals were to end fraud and reach welfare to the poorest. But in practice it has achieved neither. The claimed elimination of bogus cards has been found to be exaggerated. On the other hand, the insistence on the Aadhaar card has led to the brutal exclusion from welfare of the very poor and the homeless — for reasons such as...

-Livemint.com Union Budget 2018 may be able to offer sops for big farmers but it would not be able to deal with the structural challenges facing India’s rural economy The results of the Gujarat elections, in which the opposition Congress outperformed the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in rural constituencies, and the growing number of farmer agitations in the country have focused attention on rural India ahead of this year’s budget. But...

-The New Indian Express BENGALURU (Karnataka): Bhoomee, a web-enabled platform for the agriculture community, and integrated with cloud, mobile and other digital technologies, intends to take information and engagement closer to farmers.An increasing number of farmers are reaping benefits of the platform. Rajanna, a farmer from Tumakuru district, got to know the price of watermelon in Bengaluru’s market through the Bhoomee platform and was able to sell his produce at double...