-The Hindustan Times The cabinet on Thursday cleared the land acquisition bill, paving way for its introduction in the winter session. With the new law in place, the government hopes to facilitate land acquisitions that have become a roadblock for the economy. The cabinet also removed bureaucratic hurdles that hold up highway projects. According to the provisions of the bill, consent of 80% of landowners would be needed to acquire land for private...

-The Hindu New investment committee can hasten,not compel clearance After the Environment Ministry’s vociferous objections to a National Investment Board (NIB) which could assume some of its authority, the Union Cabinet on Thursday approved a renamed and watered down version of the original proposal, creating a new Cabinet Committee on Investment (CCI) to expedite decisions on infrastructure and manufacturing projects over Rs. 1,000 crore. The new CCI will be chaired by Prime Minister...

-Frontline Farmers protest against the Central clearance for coal bed methane exploration in Mannargudi, Tamil Nadu, as they fear it will devastate agriculture in Tiruvarur and Thanjavur districts.  THE woes of the delta farmers of Tamil Nadu are far from over. While the Cauvery tangle continues unresolved, they fear the proposed multi-crore project for commercial exploration and exploitation of coal bed methane (CBM) in the Mannargudi block of Tiruvarur district will prove...

-The Indian Express With the government set to launch the direct cash transfer scheme from January 1 in select districts across the country, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi will tomorrow brief district Congress and youth presidents about the benefits of the scheme. He will address district Congress and Youth Congress presidents of 51 districts, where the direct cash transfer scheme is to be implemented from January, explaining the benefits of the measure so...

-The Times of India Crest The biggest hurdle for the DCT programme is the identification of the poor. The "gamechanger" announcement of the UPA 2 government on Direct Cash Transfers (DCT) for 45 schemes has generated much debate through the week with opinions flying around faster than money can get electronically transferred. At the heart of it, the idea of this proposed DCT is unexceptionable. Existing programmes where government transfers money to...