-The Indian Express Linking of aadhaar to a growing number of government entitlements is misguided LAST week the Union food ministry issued an unprecedented diktat. It has insisted that each family member must possess an aadhaar number within four months, to be eligible for subsidised foodgrains under the National Food Security Act. This ties in with the larger plan for all ration shops by 2019 to verify aadhaar biometrics at every...

-The Hindu Surakhpur, declared ‘fully digital payment enabled’ by government, rues low literacy, poor connectivity Around 10 days ago, a team of Delhi government officials handed over two PoS (point of sale) machines to kirana (grocery) store owners Surat Singh and Ramesh Kumar, both residents of Surakhpur village in Najafgarh, on the Delhi-Haryana border. The officials taught the two how to use the machines. On Wednesday, when The Hindu visited the village, where...

-PTI NEW DELHI: After cooking gas LPG, the government on Thursday made aadhaar mandatory for availing subsidised foodgrains from the ration shops with a view to better the target of Rs 1.4 lakh crore subsidy under the food security law. The government has given time to those not having the biometric-based unique identification number to apply for aadhaar by June 30. The government issued a notification to this effect but did stop short...

-The Indian Express The enhancement of state powers without control or transparency is not being done against our wishes The clamour for security, accountability and transparency is leading to unfettered increase in the power of states. We are enacting law after law, introducing technology after technology, to render citizens transparent to the state. But at the same time, we are weakening protections and consenting to technologies in a way that makes the...

-The Hindu The HRD Ministry official was responding to the Cabinet Secretariat’s directive in November. The Human Resource Development (HRD) Ministry has expressed concern over the Centre’s push to link the aadhaar number with subsidy schemes related to school education. In a recent inter-ministerial meeting, the Department of School Education and Literacy (DSEL), under the HRD Ministry, said the decision to use the aadhaar number as an identification document for receiving benefits under...