Home minister P. Chidambaram has set a two-year deadline for completing the National Population Register (NPR). In a release today, his ministry said the register was “likely to be” completed by March 2014, the statement coming a day after the Union budget announced that the Aadhaar platform was ready to support payments for projects like the rural job scheme. Aadhaar, a project of the Planning Commission, is the unique number meant for...
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Why this will be a reform budget-Surjit S Bhalla
Most of us don’t even get a single shot at making history — Manmohan Singh has a second chance The fiscal deficit is an outcome, not a policy. It is the net resolution of the policies pertaining to taxes and expenditure. It is worth analysing separately the two components of the deficit. The table reports the results of relating the tax and expenditure share of GDP to per capita income for...
More »UIDAI Bill unlikely to be tabled in budget session by Devika Banerji
The Bill governing the unique identity project is unlikely to be introduced in the budget session of parliament, as the Planning Commission needs more time to finalise its revised version. The Unique Identity Authority of India (UIDAI) Bill, which aims to give legal status to the collection of biometric data and issue of unique identification numbers to all resident Indians, was rejected by a parliamentary committee last year. "There are many issues...
More »2 crore Indian children study in English-medium schools by Anahita Mukherji
The last eight years have seen a staggering rise in the number of children studying in English-medium schools across the country. Data on school enrolment for 2010-11 shows that, for the first time, the number of children enrolled in English-medium schools from Classes I to VIII has crossed the two crore mark - a 274% rise since 2003-04. For the fourth year in a row, English is the second-largest medium of...
More »Caste census to be ready by July-end: Jairam
-PTI The socio-economic caste census, which will be used to identify beneficiaries of various social welfare schemes, including the proposed food law, could only be completed by July-end, according to Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh. Last month, Food Minister K V Thomas had written a letter to the Rural Development Minister seeking an updated status of SECC (socio-economic caste census) 2011, and also requested the ministries concerned to complete the survey soon...
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