In its technology statement, Aadhaar, the massive Government of India project that seeks to enrol citizens, puts on record its commitment to using open technological standards. However, the government of Kerala — the only State that mandates the use of Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) in governance — recently found that the client enrolment software used is only compatible with Windows, the proprietary operating system owned by Microsoft. The Unique...

They narrate their accounts of pain and humiliation “We will never again go back to that life of shame and indignity” Provide quota for community in higher education: Aruna Roy The capital's Constitution Club resounded on Monday to cries of “Jai Bhim” as a huge gathering of former manual scavengers rose as one to demand an apology from the government for the wrongs done to the community. “Apologise now for the violation of...

A meticulous study of the agrarian relations in three villages. ONE of our senior sociologists once drew my attention to the distinction between economics and other social sciences. Other social sciences – sociology and anthropology, for instance – he said, pay a great deal of attention to gathering primary data and interpreting them, whereas economics relies on secondary data for its analysis. This is, to a large extent, a fair...

It was an achievement that Uttar Pradesh’s Majhwara village cherished, calling it a victory of ballot over bullet. A day after the cremation of her husband — revenue inspector Ram Kumar Yadav — Kamla Yadav won the election for the post of the pradhan of this village in Sultanpur district. Ram Kumar was kidnapped and murdered after the October 11 polling. He was targetted — allegedly by BSP legislator Chandrabhadra Singh alias...

All school children across the country will soon have unique identification numbers (UID) which will help in tracking their movement in educational institutions and academic records. This follows the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding between the Union Human Resource Development Ministry and the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) here on Wednesday. The system will help in tracking students' mobility by creating an electronic registry, right from the primary level through...