-PTI NEW DELHI: After cooking gas LPG, the government on Thursday made Aadhaar mandatory for availing subsidised foodgrains from the ration shops with a view to better the target of Rs 1.4 lakh crore subsidy under the food security law. The government has given time to those not having the biometric-based unique identification number to apply for Aadhaar by June 30. The government issued a notification to this effect but did stop short...

-The Indian Express The enhancement of state powers without control or transparency is not being done against our wishes The clamour for security, accountability and transparency is leading to unfettered increase in the power of states. We are enacting law after law, introducing technology after technology, to render citizens transparent to the state. But at the same time, we are weakening protections and consenting to technologies in a way that makes the...

-The Telegraph New Delhi: The Narendra Modi government appears to have again opted for the money bill route, this time to implement new provisions on political parties' funding, to "sidestep" the Rajya Sabha where the ruling NDA is in a minority. A money bill can be introduced, amended and voted on only in the Lok Sabha. They are referred to the Rajya Sabha but it cannot vote on them, nor can it...

-The Hindu The HRD Ministry official was responding to the Cabinet Secretariat’s directive in November. The Human Resource Development (HRD) Ministry has expressed concern over the Centre’s push to link the Aadhaar number with subsidy schemes related to school education. In a recent inter-ministerial meeting, the Department of School Education and Literacy (DSEL), under the HRD Ministry, said the decision to use the Aadhaar number as an identification document for receiving benefits under...

-NDTV The "highest ever allocation" to NREGA (which also led to it trending on Twitter)  in the Union Budget has provided a useful opportunity to raise some pressing issues related to the implementation of the scheme. It is natural, and welcome, that the government turn to NREGA to provide much-needed relief to those whose already precarious lives have been disrupted by demonetization, a man-made economic disaster. Widespread reports of job losses...