Studies by the India-Brazil-South Africa (IBSA) Academic Forum on food security issues in the three countries suggest that providing food access works best when backed by cash transfers. A paper on food security brought out by the UNDP’s Brasilia-based International Policy Centre for Inclusive Growth (IPC-IG), under the Forum, shows that despite the great strides in food production made by India people in this country are just not eating enough. Citing indices...

The foreword — to the Draft National Land Acquisition and Rehabilitation and Resettlement Bill 2011 — that says “urbanisation is inevitable” (I.p.1) signifies danger. The Bill, if enacted in its present form, is likely to worsen, and not stop, displacement of tribal, Dalit and other backward communities. The Bill states: “The issue of who acquires land is less important than the process of land acquisition, compensation for land acquired and...

-The Business Standard   Demand-side control cannot be an answer beyond a point to India’s persistently high food price inflation, the World Bank said on Monday. Consumer price-based food inflation in India has been at 10-20 per cent for quite a long while, noted its report on ‘Food inflation in South Asia’. The Bank’s chief economist for the region, Kalpana Kochhar, said controlling inflation in India was a difficult job for the Reserve Bank...

AFTER introducing the land acquisition Bill in Parliament last week, rural development minister Jairam Ramesh now plans to address the vexed and sensitive issue of land reforms, including the revision of land ceiling limits, in a big way. In a radical move, the minister has proposed that ‘ absentee landlords’ should own only half the quantum of land as compared to the ceiling fixed for normal landowners. “ Absentee landlords and non-...

The Government has a proposed timeline for the award of compensation under the Land Acquisition and Rehabilitation and Resettlement Bill. This timeline was not in the draft of the Bill posted on the Government's Web site on July 29 for comments from stakeholders and the public. After these responses and consultation with the stakeholders, seven changes have been made, the Rural Development Minister, Mr Jairam Ramesh, said. The Minister said that the...