Aadhaar

The ambitious Unique Identity Project of Indian Government is rechristened as "Aadhaar" on Monday, 26 April, 2010.

In this project all citizens will get a unique 16-digit identity number. This project is headed by Nandan Nilkeni (Infosys fame) with Unique Identification Authority as the concerned authority.

The new logo, with a sun in yellow and a fingerprint in the centre, was also made public at a seminar organised by the UIDAI here.

UIDAI Director General R S Sharma said the first 16 digit number would be rolled out by February next year.

Nilekani said the project was aimed at the under privileged and the poor who are left out of the government's social schemes because of lack of identity proof.

R Chandra Shekhar, Secretary, Department of Information Technology, said, "AADHAAR is the first identity project which is aiming at the poor and marginalised. Earlier all such schemes use to cater only to security but AADHAAR caters to both."

The Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009

86th Amendment Act (2002) via Article 21A (Part III) of Indian Constitution seeks to make free and compulsory education a Fundamental Right for all children in the age group 6-14 years.

The salient features of this act are:

•Every child between the ages of 6 to 14 years has the right to free and compulsory education. This is stated as per the 86th Constitution Amendment Act added Article 21A. The right to education act seeks to give effect to this amendment

•The government schools shall provide free education to all the children and the schools will be managed by school management committees (SMC). Private schools shall admit at least 25% of the children in their schools without any fee.

•The National Commission for Elementary Education shall be constituted to monitor all aspects of elementary education including quality.