The policy deep-freeze and Land acquisition woes have resulted in over 500 projects, mostly power and steel, being shelved or put on hold during 2011-12, entailing a total investment of over Rs 5,00,000 crore. According to CMIE estimates, during the year Rs 1,70,000 crore worth of investment projects had been abandoned by project developers, and another Rs 3,30,000 crore worth were stalled on account of various procedural issues. The core sectors, led...

Mamata Banerjee today said private investors “are staying away from Bengal because Land is not available for them”. However, she laid stress on the importance of public sector projects — the state has attracted some — saying “public sector investment is also investment”. The chief minister, whose government’s hands-off policy on Land acquisition has so far acted as a deterrent for private industry, said at a railway programme in Hooghly’s Dankuni: “The...

Maintaining his pro-Adivasi approach, Union Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh on Monday said the time had come to make changes in the country's economic policy keeping the interests of the Adivasi population in view. “Though the country has achieved enough economic progress, the benefit of our economic policy has not reached the Adivasi people so far. The injustice done to the Adivasis needs to be corrected with concern and care,” Mr....

The tribal affairs ministry is moving fast to amend the Forest Rights Act and bring about changes in rules that would make it easier for traditional forest dwellers to get their rightful claim over forest Lands and more difficult for the industry to use the green patches without the former's nod. The move comes with the central government recording serious flaws in the implementation of the Act across the country. As...

School texts that teach young minds that politics is a contentious and critical but reasonable activity, that it is not merely a set of demands and commands, and that politicians have to be responsive and accountable are naturally disliked by the political class. This is the tone of all the Political Science textbooks of Standards IX-XI brought out after 2006. The nurturing of a culture of critical public opinion seems...