-The Hindu When the National Democratic Alliance government amended the land acquisition Act through an ordinance last week, it promised to set Farmers and industry on an amiable path to mutual benefits and development. Land acquisition under the 1894 Act had been marked by violent protests, even police firings at Farmers. The Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement (LARR) Act, 2013, is the first law on...

-The Indian Express The NDA government's ordinance to amend the land acquisition Act does not merely expand the list of projects that would be exempted from requirements of consent and Social Impact Assessment but also quietly makes other provisions in the law less stringent. It dilutes the requirement that unused acquired land be returned to the original owners, makes it tougher to prosecute defaulting civil servants, reduces the scope of the...

-Down to Earth It provides Farmers with services to improve productivity and find better prices A non-profit based in Telangana, working on agricultural research and development, has launched a low-cost phone cum tablet computer-phablet-to benefit small holder Farmers. "GreenPHABLET will allow information to be precisely targeted to individual smallholder Farmers, helping them to purchase inputs at a lower price and get a better price for their produce. It will also link them to...

-The Telegraph New Delhi: Rural development minister Birender Singh today said he could not be traced on Wednesday when President Pranab Mukherjee asked the government to clarify the need for an ordinance to amend the land acquisition law, explaining why it was left to other ministers to justify an ordinance brought by his ministry. The minister ruled out speculation that he was unhappy with the amendments being made to the Right to...

-Macroscan.com Dr. Rajan's criticism of the debt-waiver scheme for Farmers underscores the fact that 'social banking" gets progressively eliminated in the era of neo-liberalism. Please click here to read more. * This article was originally published in the People's Democracy, Vol. XXXIX No. 01, January 04, 2015. ...