Public Distribution System

The ACLU of West Virginia has filed a lawsuit against state officials challenging West Virginia's 44-year-old education funding formula, arguing the decades-old system fails to adequately and fairly fund public schools. The case could force a rethink of how the state distributes money to school districts. Advocates say the formula has not kept pace with modern student needs, while officials have not yet outlined their response.

Reports suggest India's public distribution system could use facial recognition to identify beneficiaries when fingerprint authentication fails. Prabhat Khabar reports that face-based verification is being considered as a new alternative for ration distribution, aimed at helping people whose biometric fingerprints do not register, particularly elderly workers and labourers whose prints wear out over time.

More than 1.5 crore ration cards are set to be deactivated, according to a report in Bengali daily Sangbad Pratidin. The cards belong to beneficiaries who have not collected subsidised ration supplies for a long time. Authorities use non-collection of rations as a sign that a cardholder no longer needs the subsidy, and inactive cards are being weeded out to keep the public distribution system accurate.

F-Droid, the largest open-source app store for Android, has officially announced it will not comply with Google's requirements, rejecting integration with the company's ecosystem. The move is being covered as a notable act of resistance from the alternative app distribution community, highlighting ongoing friction between independent Android platforms and Google's control over the operating system.

Comcast announced the deployment of fiber sensing technology across its broadband network, aimed at improving network intelligence and reliability. The system uses the fiber-optic infrastructure itself to detect and locate issues, helping the company respond faster to outages and potential disruptions. The announcement was distributed via Business Wire and picked up by regional outlets, drawing attention within the telecom and internet infrastructure sector.