-Farmlandgrab.org Oxfam’s Phil Bloomer reports on the shocking scandal of (mostly) secretive land-grabbing, usually from those least able to defend their rights Land grabbing has fast become a major threat to poor communities in Africa, Asia and South America. Poverty-stricken women and men are being driven from their homes and the land they rely on to grow food to eat and make a living, usually without compensation. In many cases this is...

-The Times of India Families living in cities and towns with annual income of up to Rs 1 lakh or monthly earning of up to Rs 8,334 will fall in the category of economically weaker section (EWS), according to new criteria formulated by the housing and Urban Poverty alleviation ministry. Households having income between Rs 1 lakh and Rs 2 lakh or monthly earning of up to Rs 16,667 will be classified...

-The Times of India The government is moving rapidly to enable cash transfers through the Aadhar platform with 51 districts to be covered by January 1, 2013, and half the country four months later — a bid to rollout an initiative aimed at streamlining subsidies while also earning votes. The plan is to put money directly into bank accounts of beneficiaries of government schemes like scholarships, cheap food under the Public Distribution...

-The Business Standard A study has found that the poor households earned a total of Rs 1,545 cr, spent a total of Rs 1,185 cr, and contributed a savings of Rs 360 cr to the city in 2011 Urban poor living in slums of Bangalore contribute 3-3.5 per cent of the City’s economy. About 9-11 per cent of the city’s population that lives in slums contribute between Rs 1,643 crore to Rs...

-The Times of India In a recent election rally, Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi advised Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, one of the country's top economists, to follow the Gujarat model of development , to cure the country of its ills. "Mr Prime Minister, if you try to follow the path of Gujarat state, the condition of the country will be transformed." Modi, who is projecting himself as the champion of economic...