A team of 2.5 million census-takers is starting work on the once-a-decade census to register, count and, for the first time, give an identity card to India’s population of about 1 billion persons. The 2011 census will take year to complete has a new twist: everyone will be photographed and fingerprinted, as the government adds biometric data to its population register.
Links to other sites: Business Week, Census India, Radio Australia
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Geneva’s Rom population has received support from the canton’s justice system in its ongoing fight with the police over begging in the city. An appeals court Thursday 17 December upheld an earlier decision that a group had been arrested illegally, and their fines have been overturned. In some cases the fines had been turned into jail time, when those caught begging did not have the money to cover their fines.
The ruling could affect thousands of other fines, 20 Minutes was told by Mesemrom, a group that represents Rom interests in Geneva.
