-Livemint.com Biometric attendance for government officials and employees is being suspended with immediate effect, till further orders, Union Minister Dr. Jitendra Singh said The Biometric attendance at all government offices has been suspended in the view of rising COVID cases, Union Minister Dr. Jitendra Singh said. However, all the employees are required to mark their attendance in attendance registers to be maintained manually, an order issued by the Personnel Ministry said. “Keeping in...

-The Telegraph Daltonganj: If you are a government schoolteacher in a Palamau village and want your Biometric attendance recorded, better be nimble at climbing trees. The Raghubar Das government’s digital dream needs a leg up on a palash tree on the campus of an upgraded plus two school in Sohree Khas village in Satbarwa block, 41km from Daltonganj. Since September 25, when Palamau district administration gave the co-educational school with 800 students a...

-The Hindu Business Line Aadhaar does more damage than good in welfare programmes It is widely believed that Aadhaar-Based Biometric Authentication (ABBA) is necessary to improve the delivery of welfare programmes such as the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MNREGA), Public Distribution System (PDS), social security pensions, and so on. This is a misconception. We have been studying these programmes for a decade, focusing mainly on the source of leakages and...

-Hindustan Times The last few weeks have seen a spate of government notifications making Aadhaar mandatory for receiving the benefits of government programmes. The most recent orders relate to an Aadhaar requirement for children to access schools (even under their fundamental right to education), mid-day meals, supplementary nutrition (ICDS) and scholarships. These directives raise a number of ethical as well as practical questions, besides violating children’s right to education, nutrition and...

-The Telegraph New Delhi: The Economic Survey has recommended that biometric tracking of teachers' attendance be introduced in government primary schools and the data monitored by parents and local communities. The Survey has cited the low-learning outcome of children in government schools and linked it to teacher absenteeism and shortage of professionally qualified teachers. According to the UNESCO- EFA (Education For All) Monitoring Report for 2014, teacher absenteeism in India varies between 15...