-The Telegraph New delhi: Prakash Javadekar's human resource development ministry has failed to back up with details his four-month-old claim that Aadhaar-linkage had helped the government identify 80,000 "ghost lecturers'' at colleges and universities. Anjali Bhardwaj and Amrita Johri of the Satark Nagrik Sangathan had moved separate Right to Information applications on the subject. Bhardwaj had sought the state-wise break-up of the "ghost lecturers", their names and those of the colleges and universities...

-The Telegraph New delhi: The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) on Friday sought a report from the Uttar Pradesh government over news reports about two minor girls being kept in jail for three-and-a-half months for alleged cow slaughter. The commission took suo motu cognisance of "a media report" that in a case of alleged cow slaughter, the police sent the two minor girls, aged about 12 and 16 years, to jail in...

-The Times of India NEW delhi: The government has decided on a ten-fold increase in the minimum compensation payable to road accident victims or their kin in case of death, permanent disability or minor injury irrespective of their income and age criteria. While revising this after a gap of 24 years, the transport ministry, however, has left the option for people to pursue their case in the Motor Accident Claims Tribunal...

-CaravanMagazine.in The economist Jean Drèze’s book, Sense and Solidarity, published in late 2017, deals with the impact of Aadhaar on social-welfare programmes, such as the National Food Security Act and the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme, among other things. Drèze was a member of the United Progressive Alliance government’s advisory council, which designed the NFSA and MGNREGS. He co-authored some of the essays in this book with colleagues and...

-Down to Earth If the world spends even a fraction of the predicted loss, it can reverse land degradation, which affects the poorest the most The world will lose $23 trillion by 2050 due to land degradation, warns a United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) review. In comparison, only US $4.6 trillion, a fraction of the predicted losses, will be required to rectify what is one of the biggest threats...