-The Times of India Undertrials languishing in jails for long years because of their inability to secure bail may soon be released following the Centre directive to all states and Union Territories to review such cases. Saying only the poor and indigent continued to be in jails for long periods and that too for minor offences, the Centre has asked states to release all such undertrials who have completed half the maximum...

-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,...

-Counterpunch.org     “The rearing and guiding of a civilization must depend upon its intellectual class.”     BR Ambedkar, Ranade, Gandhi and Jinnah, 1943, Delhi. I. Arrest. States are clumsy with their enormous power. When it suits the modern state, it uses it immense apparatus to constraint those who make claims upon it or who say things that denigrate this or that section of society. A college professor in West Bengal draws a cartoon of...

-Deccan Herald Amid controversy over sensitive scenes in Kamal Haasan’s film “Vishwaroopam,” which is expected to release in Tamil Nadu on February 7 after some cuts by the filmmaker, the Centre has set up a committee to revisit the Cinematograph Act and recommend measures to enable the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) to deal with “contemporary requirements of certification.” The eight-member panel, to be headed by former chief justice of Punjab...

-The Indian Express The ambitious Rs 5,500 crore proposal to issue resident identity cards to the entire population above 18 years of age under the National Population Register — which in the past had clashed with the Aadhaar scheme under UIDAI on ground that they had similar objectives — on Thursday failed to find Cabinet approval following which Prime Minister Manmohan Singh referred it to a Group of Ministers (GoM). Cabinet ministers...