"India lives in several centuries at the same time. Somehow we manage to progress and regress simultaneously." Arundhati Roy Controversies, protests and violence have marred land acquisition for projects in India. Protests against acquiring agricultural land, inappropriate compensation or environmental impact have been the main reasons for these protests. In most cases, the protests are by farmers who are hardly compensated after their fertile agricultural land is taken over in for...

The Supreme Court today dismissed a Gujarat farmer’s petition against allotment of fertile agricultural land in Sanand for Tata Motors’ Nano project. “You cannot complain that only barren land should be used for industry and not agricultural land, once the land has been taken over,” Chief Justice of India K.G. Balakrishnan said. The Narendra Modi government had allotted the 1,000 acres, about 30km from Ahmedabad, last year after Tata Motors withdrew from...

The article presents the political and economic impacts of various kinds of natural and man-made disasters and associated displacement of populations, and argues for a wider and more inclusive definition of disasters in the interest of human rights, social justice and equity for the victims of disasters. Legislation, Disasters and People Numerous disasters at national and international levels have caused governments to recognise the need for rapid and effective response to provide...