-Hindustan Times With the key Land Acquisition bill stalled by political differences with the Opposition, the Centre may change tack and get states to enact their own land legislation, enabling it to push along the economic reform process.   Finance minister Arun Jaitley said on Wednesday that the states that wanted speedy development could take the lead in framing such laws with the Centre's backing, while Prime Minister Narendra Modi said “political considerations”...

-Financial Express The countrywide roll-out of the much-touted National Food Security Act (NFSA) seems unlikely even this fiscal, with a clutch of major states including Uttar Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Gujarat seeking more time to finalise and digitise the beneficiary lists and complete end-to-end computerisation of the public distribution system (PDS). The countrywide roll-out of the much-touted National Food Security Act (NFSA) seems unlikely even this fiscal, with a clutch of major...

-Business Standard Agricultural marketing reform should first take states on board The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) has announced plans for a "national agricultural market" which would involve the integration of 585 major regulated mandis through electronic platforms over three years. Several problems in the current farm marketing system, governed by the monopolistic agricultural produce marketing committees (APMCs), might be addressed if this works: the multiplicity of mandi fees and licences...

-The Telegraph New Delhi: When a single woman or unwed mother applies for her child's birth certificate, it must be issued on the basis of her affidavit and without insisting that she disclose the name of the father, the Supreme Court ruled today. The court also held that an unwed Christian mother could assume the guardianship of her child without issuing prior notice to the father for permission as laid down in...

-The Indian Express The SECC has identified 14 parameters of exclusion. Fulfilling even one of them would result in a household being treated as non-deprived. Adivasis or Scheduled Tribes are the most deprived among rural households in India, despite their suffering much lower levels of landlessness and dependence on manual casual labour compared to the Dalits or Scheduled Castes. According to the results of the Socio Economic and Caste Census 2011, nearly...