-Outlook Out in our streets, disabled people feel the pain everyday The Gaping Holes     India yet to get a cohesive, standardised sign language     Barrier-free infrastructure yet to be implemented in public areas like bus stations, railway stations, schools, cinema halls     Lack of basic, inclusive civic facilities: no audio-enabled traffic signals, pavements with ramps, few disability-friendly toilets, negligible penalties     Poor functional entertainment Accessibility, like no subtitling on local language TV channels     Reservation...

-The Hindu Dudu (Rajasthan): The Union government launched an Aadhaar-enabled service delivery system here on Saturday with a promise of eliminating fraud, black-marketing, pilferage in schemes and bribery through a reliable mechanism of direct cash transfer to beneficiaries in a transparent manner. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and United Progressive Alliance chairperson Sonia Gandhi inaugurated the ambitious programme, which seeks to integrate the government-run flagship schemes with the Aadhaar card system at a...

-The Times of India Rising food prices during 2010-11 may have pushed three million Bangladeshis into poverty, and kept eight million Indians from getting out of poverty bracket, finds a UN report released on Thursday. In Asia and Pacific region, food inflation pushed nearly four million people into poverty. The UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific ( ESCAP) report on regional cooperation for inclusive and sustainable development says...

-Firstpost.com The floodgates seem to have opened when it comes to news reporting on Robert Vadra and his real estate dealings. DNA today reported that “In a flurry of deals between June 2009 and August 2011, Robert Vadra purchased at least 20 plots of land collectively measuring more than 770 hectares in Rajasthan’s Bikaner district, in a region that would see prices spiraling soon after.” According to the newspaper, “A clutch of...

-The Hindu The new Bill should pitch for free care to mental health patients in public hospitals. Persons with mental illness have long been subjected to cruelty, neglect, ridicule and stigma. In the last half-century, medical science has made significant strides in finding some cures and palliatives for afflictions of the mind – of emotion, mood, thinking and behaviour. Parallel to this is the evolution in our ethical frameworks: of human rights,...