-The Hindustan Times Geneva/ New Delhi: India told the World Trade Organisation on Friday it will only back a worldwide reform of customs rules - the so-called trade facilitation agreement (TFA) - if its demands on rules for government-driven food procurement and welfare schemes are implemented in the same timeframe. "India is of the view that the TFA must be implemented only as part of a single undertaking including the permanent solution...

-The Times of India Blog The presidential address to Parliament on June 9, 2014 had focussed nearly exclusively on projects and schemes, eschewing policy. Therefore, many had eagerly awaited the budget speech for a policy vision of the new government. Unfortunately, it too left observers guessing on whether the government would tackle tough reforms or rely principally on better implementation. Had this been the budget of the United Progressive Alliance (UPA), arguably...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: In what could point to serious security loopholes in Aadhar project, an internal risk assessment by the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) in 2012 had found that the enrolment device could be taken outside its defined territory, including foreign land, to enroll people and send data to UIDAI for processing. The anomaly led a UIDAI committee, set up in the wake of the government's January...

-The Telegraph New Delhi: India continues to lag on human development indicators in spite of a slew of welfare programmes, with a UNDP report released today ranking it 135th among 187 countries that were judged on progress in areas such as life expectancy, education, income and employment.   Analysts blame India's poor performance on lack of accountability in implementation of the welfare programmes. Former National Advisory Council member N.C. Saxena said state governments...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: Four days before Prime Minister Narendra Modi made his first public statement surprisingly backing the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), former UIDAI chairman Nandan Nilekani met with the PM and finance minister Arun Jaitley and persuaded the new regime to persist with Aadhaar numbers and the Direct Benefits Transfer (DBT) scheme. This meeting - a life-saver for the Aadhaar programme - happened on the first...