-PTI Govt last year launched PMUY scheme to provide 5 cr poor women with free LPG connections in 3 years New Delhi: The government has extended till September-end the time by which poor women wishing to avail of free cooking gas (LPG) connections must apply for the unique 12-digit biometric identification number Aadhaar. The government had in March this year mandated that anyone not having Aadhaar but desirous of availing free LPG connection...

-Ideas for India Soon after Aadhaar was made compulsory for availing midday meals in schools, the government claimed that the move had helped expose several instances of schools siphoning off funds under the scheme by reporting inflated student enrolment. Comparing official data with that from the Indian Human Development Survey, this column shows that corruption in the scheme is less than what is being alleged - and not of the nature...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court continued to subject the debate on constitutional status for the right to privacy to close scrutiny, saying economic rights of citizens and provision for food and other essential items could never be a ground to undermine basic fundamental rights. This observation came when senior advocate C A Sundaram, appearing for the Maharashtra government, reiterated the Centre's stand that right to privacy would always...

-The Hindu 'Privacy argument will hit governance' Highlighting the need for a comprehensive law on data protection, the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) informed a nine-judge Bench of the Supreme Court on Tuesday that the Centre has constituted a committee of experts, led by former Supreme Court judge, Justice B.N. Srikrishna, to identify “key data protection issues” and suggest a draft data protection Bill. Appearing before the Bench led by Chief Justice...

-Livemint.com The Aadhaar project is a textbook example of how not to design and execute a public policy initiative in India When it was first launched in 2009, Aadhaar signalled a promise to repair the corroded plumbing of India’s leaky public delivery systems. The unique biometric identity would help reduce duplicate and ghost entries in the list of beneficiaries of government schemes, and pave the way for direct benefit transfers to them...