-The Times of India BHUBANESWAR: After facing turbulent times for 12 years, the state government finally brought the curtain down on the much-hyped mega Posco steel project as it cancelled the 1880 acres of land allotted to the South Korean company. The Odisha Industrial Infrastructure Development Corporation (idco), state's nodal agency for land acquisition, has intimated to the Posco company the government's decision to withdraw the land allotted for setting up...

-The Indian Express In some states like Assam, Bihar, Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand, the increase in daily wages under MGNREGA from April 1 is just Re 1. IN THE lowest wage hike under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Scheme, the Centre has increased wages by an average of just 2.7 per cent this financial year. In some states like Assam, Bihar, Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand, the increase in daily...

-Frontline.in The British government, on the basis of an 1891 report on the subhuman living conditions of “Pariahs” by James H.A. Tremenheere, Acting Collector of Chengleput, assigned 12 lakh acres of land for distribution to the “depressed classes” of the Madras Presidency to empower them socially and economically. But more than 100 years later, much of this land is in the possession of non-Dalits, and the struggle to reclaim them has...

-Scroll.in The Public Health Foundation of India had been working on government programmes since 2010. The Ministry of Home Affairs has barred the Public Health Foundation of India from receiving foreign funding by revoking its registration under the Foreign Contributions (Regulation) Act. The ministry cited the organisation’s lobbying against tobacco use as one of the reasons for the move. However, as the foundation’s officials have pointed out, it has been working...

The focus on MGNREGA got renewed when the Finance Minister Shri Arun Jaitley during the presentation of Union Budget 2017-18 increased allocation under the programme to Rs. 48,000 crore (B.E.), up from Rs. 47,499 crore (R.E.) in 2016-17. However, it has been noticed by the Inclusive Media for Change team that nearly Rs. 9,748.7 crore of due payment during the last financial year is still pending, as on 2 April,...