KEY TRENDS   • Section 105 of the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in the Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, 2013, which provides for excluding 13 Central legislation, including Land Acquisition (Mines) Act 1885, Atomic Energy Act, 1962, Railway Act 1989, National Highways Act 1956 and Metro Railways (Construction of Works) Act, 1978, from its purview, has been amended for payment of compensation with rigours $ • The amendments have now...

The Maharashtra government is looking out for an independent agency to evaluate the implementation of the Prime Minister’s relief package for six suicide-prone districts of Vidarbha. The government move comes after it approached the Centre for a second PM’s relief package of Rs 7,200 crore, wherein the state has been asked to get the implementation of the Rs 3,750-crore first package reviewed by a third party. The Prime Minister had...

During the last three years, two subjects have been consuming the attention of the world community almost to the exclusion of other equally important subjects. One is the financial crisis, which had threatened to lead to a meltdown of the global economy, and the other is the threat to orderly climate changes in the world. As we step into the second decade of the 21st century, the global financial crisis...

The 13th Finance Commission (TFC) has recommended a return to fiscal consolidation and reform in expenditure management. It has also suggested the Centre offer states a share of revenue raised from levies such as cesses and surcharges, according to people familiar with the report. TFC, a statutory body tasked with suggesting ways in which taxes should be shared between the Centre and states and drawing up a road map towards fiscal...

KEY TRENDS   • Suicide by self-employed persons in agriculture as a percentage of total suicides at the national level stood at 15.6 percent in 1996, 16.3 percent in 2002, 14.4 percent in 2006, 13.7 percent in 2009, 11.9 percent in 2010, 10.3 percent in 2011, 11.4 percent in 2012 and 8.73 percent in 2013. Suicides committed in the farming sector (by farmers plus agricultural labourers) as a proportion of total suicides in India was 9.4 percent in...