-The Hindu The architects of the unique identification scheme are yet to provide satisfactory answers to concerns about data security The Aadhaar scheme of the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) is to provide India’s billion-plus people with a unique identification number. Enrolment is not mandatory, though it was mentioned that it would be difficult for people to access public services if not done. The scheme requires individuals to provide their photograph,...

-The Hindu It has been insisting that the audit of KG-DWN-98/3 block not be made public Emboldened by the stagnation in the arbitration proceedings, the Mukesh Ambani-owned Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) has once again stalled the audit of KG-DWN-98/3 block by Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) by refusing to furnish records, financial accounts and SAP access for the KG D6 block for the 2008-12 period on various grounds. It is learnt that RIL...

-The Hindu The All India Democratic Women’s Association (AIDWA) too objected to the "selective and arbitrary approach" of the Government to the recommendations. The Communist Party of India (Marxist) has denounced the ordinance which the Union Cabinet issued on Friday to curb sexual violence against women. When Parliament was to convene for the budget session in three weeks, the promulgation of the ordinance ran counter to democratic norms, a statement issued by the...

-The Indian Express On the Delhi rape case, let’s keep the indignation, disturb legislative slumbers The Verma Committee Report (VCR) speaks against civil society and political rape cultures. The poignancy and urgency of the VCR owes much to the experience of conversing with rape survivors and traumatised children. A precious message of the VCR is this: one may not take law reform seriously without taking human and social suffering equally seriously. The committee...

-The Hindu The ordinance on sexual assault cleared by the Union Cabinet and signed into law on Sunday by the President is problematic, not in what it seeks to achieve, but in what it does not attempt to redress. If this is all that the government intends to do on the basis of the Justice Verma Committee report, then, quite worryingly, the nationwide protests and expressions of outrage at rape and...