-PTI A constitution bench would be set up to hear a clutch of petitions challenging the Centre's decision to make Aadhaar mandatory for availing various services and government welfare schemes, the Supreme Court today said.   A bench, comprising Chief Justice Dipak MISra and Justices A M Khanwilkar and D Y Chandrachud, said the larger bench would commence hearing on these petitions in the last week of November this year.   Earlier today, the apex...

-The Hindu Business Line It is in customers’ interest to link the mobile number with the UID: DoT Secretary New Delhi: The government has said that by December 1, people will be clear on what options they have for linking their Aadhaar with mobile numbers, and even for senior citizens, there would be options to do re-verification at home. “What we have told the TSPs (telecom service providers) is that within the next...

-The Hindu The public distribution system (PDS) and its disbursal of rations to the poor have come under the scanner in Jharkhand after three persons died recently, allegedly owing to lack of food. What happened? On September 28, Santoshi Kumari, an 11-year-old from Simdega district, died. Her mother, Koyli Devi, said the child died of hunger as the family was not getting rations under the State-run PDS for the past several months. The...

-PTI More than half of these unvaccinated children live in six countries — Nigeria, India, Pakistan, Indonesia, Ethiopia and Democratic Republic of the Congo, a report said. New Delhi: Around 2.9 million children in India do not get vaccinated against measles, a highly contagious viral disease that claims nearly 90,000 lives globally every year, a new report published today by leading health organisations said. The world is still far from reaching regional measles...

-Down to Earth Successive droughts lead to a substantial and unsustainable expansion of cropland at the expense of forested lands “Droughts are MISery in slow motion” with impacts even deeper than previously believed. Although floods pose major economic threats, water scarcity and drought may be causing long-term harm in ways that are poorly understood and inadequately documented, claims Uncharted waters: the new economics of water scarcity and variability, a report by...