-The Indian Express Exclusion and denial of benefits to the poor needs urgent attention The news last month of the starvation death of an 11-year-old girl in the Simdega district in Jharkhand, allegedly because of denial of PDS ration due to Aadhaar linking problems, is appalling. The Aadhaar ecosystem definitely needs to pass a stringent welfare test much more crucially than the privacy test. Aadhaar undeniably has potential, and can perhaps even be...

-Newsclick.in A World Bank study ignores slumping economy and raging joblessness to praise ‘reforms’. A charming little bromance seems to be brewing between the World Bank and India’s Modi-led government. A series of reports by the World Bank has praised Modi for various kinds of “reforms”. The latest is the so called “Doing Business” report of the World Bank which lavishes praise on the Modi govt. for making it easier to do...

-The Telegraph New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Tuesday asked for details of members of Parliament alleged to have crime records and the status of trials pending against them following claims that more than one in every three lawmakers in Parliament had criminal antecedents. Justices Ranjan Gogoi and Navin Sinha, who were hearing a batch of petitions seeking a lifetime ban on convicted persons from contesting Assembly or parliamentary elections, asked petitioner...

-CivilSocietyOnline.com Vikas Gando Thayo Chhe" which means ‘development has gone mad’ is a super hit song these days in Gujarat. In the just concluded garba festival, this song was hugely popular throughout Gujarat. The song became popular even before Prime Minister Narendra Modi celebrated his birthday on 7 September by declaring completion of an incomplete Sardar Sarovar Project (SSP), heaping totally unnecessary, unjustified and unjust displacement on 40,000 families in the...

-The Hindu Business Line Come November, the Jan Aushadhi initiative completes nine years. But despite its recent achievements, there's more work to be done. PT Jyothi Datta writes Earlier this year, Chemicals and Fertilizers Minister Ananth Kumar vowed to end the “medicine mafia” in the country by opening many more Jan Aushadhi kendras, stores that sell generic medicines at affordable prices. Kumar was echoing the mission outlined by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley...