-The Times of India The Delhi government has put out public notices declaring that an Aadhaar card will be compulsory from January 1 for access to every government service. The notice has left people confused for lakhs of Delhiites are yet to be enrolled under the Aadhaar programme. On Saturday, Nandan Nilekani represented the UIDAI at the launch of Delhi Government's Annshree Yojana which is cited as the first Aadhaar UID-enabled scheme....

—AP Envoys from nearly 90 nations signed on Friday the first new U.N. telecommunications treaty since the Internet age, but the U.S. and other Western nations refused to join after claiming it endorses greater government control over cyberspace. The head of the U.N. telecoms group pushed back against U.S. assertions, defending the accord as necessary to help expand online services to poorer nations and add more voices to shape the direction of...

-The Hindu The Direct Benefits Transfer Initiative is the real tool against corruption that will ensure that the welfare state doesn’t degenerate into a farewell state We are grateful to Narendar Pani (Editorial page, “Cashing in on schemes for poor,” November 29, 2012) and Bharat Bhatti and Madhulika Khanna (Editorial page, “Neither effective nor equitable,” December 4, 2012) for starting a useful debate on the United Progressive Alliance government’s Direct Benefits Transfer...

-Governance Now An alumnus of IIT Kanpur, Ram Sewak Sharma is a 1978 batch Indian administrative service officer belonging to Jharkhand cadre. Sharma is praised for laying down IT infrastructure in Jharkhand. In his role as the director general of unique identification authority of India (UIDAI) Sharma is chauffeuring ‘Aadhaar-enabled service delivery’ which would result in saving huge financial resources to the public exchequer. In an interview with Pratap Vikram Singh,...

-The Indian Express A free press that is able to operate without fear or favour remains an essential cornerstone of a modern democratic society. It plays a fundamental role as the guardian of public interest. By the same token, when certain deficiencies in its role become apparent, public and political furore is inevitable. So it came to pass in Britain, where public anger emanating from a single action — the hacking...