As you read this, the Unique Identity (UID) programme is likely to have enrolled 200 million Indians. The UID, if it is allowed to, will eventually become the world's largest database of human biometric markers - fingerprints, photo and iris scans. It could go on to 400 million by the end of the year and 600 million by next year. What good is this? If you talk to opponents concerned with civil...

-The Times of India   The crime branch of Delhi Police on Monday questioned 2G petitioner and Janata Party chief - Subramanian Swamy in connection with a case of writing an 'inflammatory article'. The leader, officials say, during the questioning claimed that his writings were edited by the newspaper before publication. After the questioning, Swamy alleged that the case was registered against him at the behest of home minister P Chidambaram.  Swamy, accompanied...

-The Economist   A huge identity scheme promises to help India’s poor—and to serve as a model for other countries INDIA’S economy might be thriving, but many of its people are not. This week Manmohan Singh, the prime minister, said his compatriots should be ashamed that over two-fifths of their children are underfed. They should be outraged, too, at the infant mortality, illiteracy, lack of clean drinking water and countless other curses that...

-The Economist   Opposition to the world’s biggest biometric identity scheme is growing FOR a country that fails to meet its most basic challenges—feeding the hungry, piping clean water, fixing roads—it seems incredible that India is rapidly building the world’s biggest, most advanced, biometric database of personal identities. Launched in 2010, under a genial ex-tycoon, Nandan Nilekani, the “unique identity” (UID) scheme is supposed to roll out trustworthy, unduplicated identity numbers based on...

-The Hindu   The Union government has directed the Lt. Governor of Andaman and Nicobar Islands to take action for the exploitation of Jarawa tribal women, who were made to dance semi-nude before tourists. Tribal Affairs Minister Krishna Chandra Deo told journalists that the Centre had directed the Lt. Governor to bring the culprits to book and enquire the circumstances in which the tribal women were subjugated to such abominable repression and prevent...