Allaying privacy fears surrounding 'Aadhar', the Unique Identification Authority of India Chairman Nandan Nilekani today said the project would in no way put at risk citizens' security and rights. Delivering a lecture on 'Analysing and Envisioning India,' Nilekani said having an Aadhar number in no way puts the resident in a security risk or intrudes privacy. "The data collected of the individual by means of biometric system will only be for the...

Technically, we know how to check the black economy but the problem is political. More studies or committees and treaties with foreign governments are only to stall action. Another Joint Parliamentary Committee has been announced. The government has been trying to create an impression of being proactive with regard to tackling the black economy. The President's address and the speech by Sonia Gandhi in January mentioned the need to curb it....

The promise of the FRA remains largely unfulfilled, says a committee set up by the Ministries of Environment and Forests and Tribal Affairs. IT seems hard for a government used to controlling most of India's common lands to let go of them. Even though it has passed a law mandating more decentralised governance of forests, the government itself is proving to be the biggest obstacle in its implementation. Other than in...

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in a strong sounding speech in Parliament on Thursday said that "if there is a scam it must be dealt with the law of the land. Law of the land must punish the wrong doers". "Unfortunate developments have taken place in the areas of telecom and Commonwealth Games. I assure the House there is nothing we will not do to clean our public life," Manmohan Singh said. "Our...

The new food security schemes point to the capacity of agriculture to produce more when the incentives are right. Supply of cheap foodgrains will trigger demand for other food products, which the farm sector will have to meet. The many rural development programmes in operation have complex effects on the rural economy. Programmes such as Bharat Nirman are expected to improve connectivity of markets, provide access to more efficient sources of...