-The Hindu India’s infrastructure is bursting at the seams, unable to cope with the pressure from the growing economy. Developing the sector will help to create jobs and result in higher economic growth The Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is likely to grow 5.5 per cent and the economic slowdown shows no sign of halting. India’s infrastructure is bursting at the seams, unable to cope with the pressure from the growing economy. Spurring...

-The Guardian Communities have more hope than ever of seeing off companies trying to acquire their land, with support from media and NGOs A new report on Land Acquisition by the Munden Project/Rights and Resources Initiative brings an important angle to the land "grab" debate. Rather than focusing on the ethics of land grabbing, the report makes the business case for working with local communities, arguing that failure to inform or fairly...

-The Business Standard Rich coal reserves found in Dharamjaigarh in Chhattisgarh's Raigarh district have thrown the lives of the 15,000 Bangladeshi settlers in turmoil Kalipada Das was 12 years old when his parents slipped into India from Bangladesh (then East Pakistan) after Partition in the early fifties. As violence rocked parts of Bangladesh, Das and his parents sailed across Khulna River to reach a railway station from where they hoped to board...

-The Business Standard Bhubaneswar: A week before presenting an affidavit in the Supreme Court, the Union government could have diluted its interpretation of the Forest Rights Act, if sources are to be believed. The move could have provided Vedanta an advantage in arguing its case for bauxite mining in the tribal area of Odisha’s Niyamgiri hills. But, sources say, the government might say mining should not be allowed in Vedanta’s case, as...

-The Hindu Withdraw cases against villagers, Posco Pratirodh Sangram Samiti: Civil society groups Several civil society groups have alleged abuse of human rights and registration of false cases by State government agencies in order to curb resistance against the Land Acquisition for the proposed Posco steel plant in Odisha. Highlighting instances of “biased and arbitrary” police action in the eight villages of Jagatsinghpur district affected by the plant, illustrated in the recently-released fact...