-Hindustan Times Ranchi: Jharkhand’s bureaucrats have denied thousands of farm workers their legally mandated livelihoods under the guise of plugging leakages in the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), say activists. Earlier this month, HT reported that the ministry of rural development had cancelled 93 lakh MGNREGA job cards — of which 2.67 lakh cards were from Jharkhand — to weed out duplicates and cards corresponding to dead beneficiaries. At the...

-The Indian Express Say subsidy applications made last year for purchasing machines to clear fields are still pending Ludhiana: While the departments of agriculture and pollution control are active enough these days in their campaign to control burning of wheat fields, farmers complain the agriculture department has failed to call any applications from them for seeking subsidy against the agricultural machinery used to pick straws to avoid burning them in the...

-Frontline.in The Aadhaar project’s headlong push towards “total” enrolment of Indian citizens threatens the privacy of individuals on an unprecedented scale, while its patchy biometric system acts as a tool of denial for the most vulnerable. Meanwhile, the UID chugs along, regardless, fuelled by the avarice of private interests who seek to cash in on citizen data. IN the last seven years, the right to privacy of Indian citizens has been...

-The Indian Express When announcing the decision on November 8, the government had said the then Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes would cease to be legal tender and this would cleanse the system of black money. A Parliamentary panel has come down heavily on demonetisation, describing it as one that not just inconvenienced the poor but also affected the manufacturing sector. “It was an effort to combat corruption, tax evasion and...

-Livemint.com The National Mission for Clean Ganga has decided to conduct a study on ‘Hilsa’ fish in the Ganga river for its better conservation and management New Delhi: Bangladesh’s Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has brought 20 kg of ‘Hilsa’ fish as gift for President Pranab Mukherjee during her ongoing India visit but the species has seen a consistent decline in the country. Thus for its better conservation and management, the National Mission for...