-The Hindu One in eight people, or 12.5 per cent of the world’s population, is chronically undernourished today says the latest State of Food Insecurity (SOFI) report. The grave ethical and practical implications of this abominable statistic from the three Rome-based United Nations agencies are obvious. Not least because mass hunger is a man-made phenomenon. Historically, hunger and starvation have been caused not by shortfalls in food production but rather by...

-The Hindu Allotted fake Provident Fund accounts by contractors Workers hired through multiple contractors by the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) here have alleged that companies have been denying them their minimum wages and have allotted fake Provident Fund and health insurance accounts to siphon off their money. Questioned about this, officials said that while they were aware of the workers’ complaints, they had not yet blacklisted any company, despite the fact that...

-Pratirodh.com Biometric data based 12 digit Unique Identification (UID)-Aadhaar Number linked welfare schemes is being bulldozed with 2014 elections in mind with the ulterior motive of altering voting behavior of the citizens by creating a ‘universal identity infrastructure’ linked to ‘unified payment infrastructure’.   Ahead of next parliamentary elections, with the launch of 21st crore UID-Aadhaar Number and Aadhaar Enabled Service Delivery (AESD) on October 20, 2012 contemptuously ignores Parliament, Parliamentary Committee,...

-The Indian Express The fact that the urgently needed land acquisition bill is up for debate again within the UPA is symptomatic of why this government stumbles on its economic agenda more often than not. Even as Aadhaar spread of glow of success across the government, doubts have surfaced about the present shape of the land acquisition bill. The Union cabinet had recently the cleared the bill, which says that an...

-The Hindu Dudu (Rajasthan): The Union government launched an Aadhaar-enabled service delivery system here on Saturday with a promise of eliminating fraud, black-marketing, pilferage in schemes and bribery through a reliable mechanism of direct cash transfer to beneficiaries in a transparent manner. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and United Progressive Alliance chairperson Sonia Gandhi inaugurated the ambitious programme, which seeks to integrate the government-run flagship schemes with the Aadhaar card system at a...