-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...

-The Times of India India's official unemployment rate was 3.8% for the last year and higher for urban than rural areas according to statistics released by the Labour Bureau on Tuesday. Goa, Kerala Bihar and West Bengal were among the states with high unemployment while Gujarat, Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan and Punjab were among the states with low unemployment. The 'Second Annual Employment and Unemployment Survey 2011-12', conducted by the Union Ministry of Labour...

-The Telegraph Ranchi: Jharkhand High Court today adjourned a hearing on the Nagri land acquisition controversy till Monday but asked the state to begin a dialogue with villagers who have disrupted construction of campuses of three national academic institutes. A division bench comprising Chief Justice Prakash Tatia and Justice Jaya Roy allowed the adjournment since advocate-general Anil Sinha was away in New Delhi, but asked the state government to work out a...

Census 2011 data bring into the open Maharashtra’s terrible record in sex-selective abortions. In early June, Vijaymala Patekar, a mother of four girls, haemorrhaged to death at a hospital in Parli, Beed district, Maharashtra. She was reportedly in her second trimester of pregnancy. Her family had allegedly forced her to abort the foetus when they learnt it was a girl child. Sudam Munde, the doctor who performed the procedure, fled Parli but...

-The Telegraph Acquiring land for special economic zones may become tougher. The rural development ministry has redrafted the Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement (LARR) Bill with a provision that says the proposed law would apply to land acquisition under the Special Economic Zone Act, 2005. This means if the redrafted bill is passed, landlosers will have to be consulted and their consent taken before their land can be acquired under the SEZ Act,...