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It started in late May. When geoecologist Steffen Zuther and his colleagues arrived in central Kazakhstan to monitor the calving of one herd of saigas, a  critically endangered , steppe-dwelling antelope, veterinarians in the area had already reported dead animals on the ground. "But since there happened to be die-offs of limited extent during the last years, at first we were not really alarmed," Zuther, the international coordinator of the Altyn Dala Conservation Initiative, told Live Science. But within four days, the entire herd — 60,000  saiga  — had died. As veterinarians and conservationists tried to stem the die-off, they also got word of similar population crashes in other herds across Kazakhstan. By early June, the mass dying was over. [ See Images of the Saiga Mass Die-Off ] Now, the researchers have found clues as to how more than half of the country's herd, counted at 257,000 as of 2014, died so rapidly. Bacteria clearly played a role in the saiga

Inaugurating a workshop on "Linking of Aadhaar with Electoral Roll Database and Launching of Electoral Roll Authentication and Purification Drive", at Dr. MCR HRD Institute, Hyderabad on Saturday, he advised all officers to come up with suitable action plan to expedite so that the mission could be completed by August 15th, 2015. The Chief Election Commissioner appreciated the efforts put in by District Election officers in taking a step forward and carrying out the proof of concept so effectively to generate advantages and challenges clearly. Speaking on the occasion, Election Commissioner Dr Nasim Zaidi appreciated C-DAC for creating search and other facility at a National Level for NVSP. He insisted that electoral rolls are to be purified with the help of technology for which all concerned officials need to work hard and put in collective efforts nationwide. The DG and Mission Director of UIDAI, Dr Vijay S Madan assured all necessary support from UIDAI. The worksh

New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi has suggested an Aadhaar-based online system to check delay in processing cases of pensions. The Prime Minister during a recent video-conference, while discussing problems being faced by Defence pensioners, with senior government officials of Personnel and other ministries had "stressed the need for using Aadhaar based system solutions". "He (had) also stated that e-tracking of pension matter would be a good step towards preventing delays," according to minutes of meeting held on June 3, on Aadhaar-based authentication of life certificate for pensioners. The Prime Minister suggested putting in place an e-tracking system to monitor delays in pension cases. "It was agreed that possibilities of the Online Tracking System for Pension Sanction and Payment (Bhavishya) being adopted by Ministry of Railways, Ministry of Defence, Department of Posts and Department of Telecommunications would be explored," it said. Officials

NEW DELHI:   The Supreme Court today said that the Aadhaar unique identity system will not be compulsory for Indian citizens to benefit from government services. Hearing a clutch of petitions challenging the Aadhaar as a compulsory system to receive government subsidies and services, a constitution bench of the top court ruled against the government. The government had contended that the biometric-based system of unique identification was an essential tool to ensure transparency in its services. Rejecting the government's plea, the Supreme Court said it will now have to publicise widely that the Aadhaar card was not mandatory. It also ruled that no authority shall seek Aadhaar cards from citizens to accord any services. However, on the discretion of the card-owner, it can be used for availing the subsidies in the public distribution system, gas cylinders and purchasing kerosene. The biometric data collected by the Unique Identification Authority of India cannot be used

NEW DELHI:   The Supreme Court today said that the Aadhaar unique identity system will not be compulsory for Indian citizens to benefit from government services. Hearing a clutch of petitions challenging the Aadhaar as a compulsory system to receive government subsidies and services, a constitution bench of the top court ruled against the government. The government had contended that the biometric-based system of unique identification was an essential tool to ensure transparency in its services. Rejecting the government's plea, the Supreme Court said it will now have to publicise widely that the Aadhaar card was not mandatory. It also ruled that no authority shall seek Aadhaar cards from citizens to accord any services. However, on the discretion of the card-owner, it can be used for availing the subsidies in the public distribution system, gas cylinders and purchasing kerosene. The biometric data collected by the Unique Identification Authority of India cannot be used for a

The government has decided that a longer term goal should be to expand Aadhaar enrolment activities in order to ensure that all persons on the Indian soil (Resident Indian, NRIs, OCI/PIO and visa holding visitors) shall be empowered with a unique identity/identifier that can authenticated on a digital platform any time anywhere," Planning Minister Rao Inderjit Singh said in written reply to Lok Sabha. At present all residents including Indian national and foreigners with valid visas can be enrolled and provided Aadhaar number by the UIDAI. Under the Aadhaar project, the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) is providing a unique identity numbers to residents, which can be digitally verified using the database. As per the official sources, UIDAI is working on the policy for Aadhaar enrolment of NRIs, PIOs and OICs after receiving a direction from the government on the issue. However the minister said in its reply that no timeframe has been formulated at this st

The matter was reviewed by the Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions. "It has been decided that apart from the details already prescribed, the pensioner's identity card should include the Aadhaar number of the pensioner (if available)," the Ministry said in a directive to all ministries and departments under it. Aadhaar is a 12 digit individual identification number issued by the Unique Identification Authority of India. A revised format has also been issued for the pensioners identity card. "The pensioner's identity card should be printed (and not hand written) on good quality paper. The identity card would be got laminated by the department or office (from where the employee has retired) before handing it over to pensioner," it said. The pensioners' identity card is issued by the department in which the employee last worked. There are about 50 lakh central government pensioners. The Ministry had earlier clarified tha