-The Times of India NEW DELHI: The use of Aadhaar card is set to become mandatory for all central and state government subsidies and benefits which require funding from the central exchequer with the Centre notifying the unique identity (UID) regulations. While the law had empowered the Centre to mandate use of Aadhaar, the rules clearly stipulate that any agency, such as the oil ministry dealing with cooking gas or HRD's scholarship...

-The Telegraph Ranchi: The Aadhaar-enabled public distribution system (PDS) launched in Ranchi on pilot basis threw up a tragic loophole today when around 50 leprosy patients turned up at their ward councillor's office, saying they had not received ration for the past three months as they lacked thumbs and fingers to verify their biometric identity. The 50-odd leprosy patients, including women, told ward 43 councillor Chanda Devi their very survival was at...

-TheWire.in Given the negative impact biometric point of sales machines have had in Jharkhand and Rajasthan, the group urged Bihar to continue its own PDS reforms. A group of economists and social scientists have urged Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar to not buckle under pressure from the Centre to use Aadhaar-based point of sales (PoS) machines for the distribution of rations under the public distribution system (PDS). These machines have been found...

-The Hindu The imposition of Aadhaar-based biometric authentication in the Public Distribution System threatens to disrupt recent progress with PDS reforms. It also deprives millions of people of essential food entitlements. India’s Public Distribution System (PDS) has improved steadily during the last 10 years. The system used to be most ineffective and corruption-ridden, with leakages of around 50 per cent at the national level, going up to 80 or 90 per cent...

-The Telegraph New Delhi: Academic degrees and certificates are set to go digital. Union human resource development minister Prakash Javadekar today revived a UPA initiative aimed at setting up a national academic depository to provide degrees and diplomas in a digital format. Javadekar, however, dressed up the initiative as a brainchild of the NDA government, saying the depository was a step towards Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Digital India vision. Unlike the UPA's decision...