-The Indian Express In keeping with Sonia Gandhi-led National Advisory Council's social welfare approach of rights-based entitlement, the government plans to rename the Land AcquiSITion, Rehabilitation and Resettlement (LARR) legislation as the Right to Compensation, Resettlement, Rehabilitation and Transparency in Land AcquiSITion Act (RTCRRTLA). The Department of Land Resources under Jairam Ramesh has suggested moving an official amendment to rename the Bill that was introduced in Parliament last September. The draft note suggests...

-Deccan Herald Two oppoSITion parties in Jharkhand – the Congress and the Jharkhand Vikas Morcha Prajatantrik (JVMP) and ruling alliance partner, Jharkhand Mukti Morcha on Tuesday lend support to tribal villagers protesting against the government. They were up in arms against the government for regaining possession of 227 acres of land for building an IIT, an IIM and a law univerSITy which had been illegally occupied by them for farming. Former chief minister...

ASHAs will continue to bear the burden of the government's rural health mission as a new order lists more incentive-based services. On May 31, a Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare order listed additional incentivised duties for accredited social health activists, or ASHAs, but was silent on the issue of regularisation of their employment. ASHAs, who bridge the gap between the rural population and the nearest health care outlets under...

Apparently, people across the country, bridging class, caste and income divides, are deliberately ensuring that girls are simply not born. The child sex ratio of 914 girls per 1,000 boys is a tragic SITuation and a poor reflection on India’s growth and development. This is in spite of laws, schemes, relentless activism and media campaigns spanning three decades in support of the girl child. According to activists and economists, a...

-The Hindustan Times   To get a driver's licence, what you have to counter is nothing short of a licence raj. Your mammoth effort will not be enough to get you the licence to drive on Delhi's roads. However, like in Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, help is always given to those who ask for it. At transport department offices, this help comes in the form of touts.  Though the Delhi government had...