-The Business Standard   Privacy issues are coming into focus as a result of a variety of government initiatives. The Aadhar programme, for issuing unique identity numbers, raises obvious questions of privacy as personal data are compiled in a central database. Then there is the proposed National Grid, designed as a network of 21 available databases across government and private agencies, and meant to help flag potential terrorist threats. On top...

Its population is expanding at breakneck speed, yet its schools are empty of girls Some call it India's "gendercide". In the past three decades up to 12 million unborn girls have been deliberately aborted by Indian parents determined to ensure they have a male heir. Once, parents desperate for a son achieved the same end by infanticide. But modern medical technology, and the complicity of the medical establishment, has sanitised the process...

In a bid to improve the maternal and infant mortality in the country, the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has decided to provide free nutritious food, treatment, and transportation to all pregnant women who go to government facilities for delivery. Free healthcare Services will also be provided to the newborns, as and when required. To be launched on June 1 from Mewat, Haryana, the scheme will be applicable for...

The Sonia Gandhi-led National Advisory Council has proposed that landowners should be paid six times the registered sale deed value as compensation and a solatium in case of compulsory acquisition by the state. The council sat through the day today firming up recommendations for the land acquisition bill the Centre plans to introduce in the next session of Parliament. Sonia was present for nearly six hours. It also proposed that compensation should...

The steadily rising rate of economic growth in India has recently been around 8 percent per year (it is expected to be 9 percent this year), and there is much speculation about whether and when India may catch up with and surpass China’s over 10 percent growth rate. Despite the evident excitement that this subject seems to cause in India and abroad, it is surely rather silly to be obsessed...