-India Today   Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh's pet land acquisition, rehabilitation and resettlement Bill, 2011 has run into major roadblocks in the parliamentary standing committee. Various stakeholders, including farmers' organisations, NGOs and legal experts contend that in its present form, the Bill is an empty shell that exempts 90 per cent major development projects - highways, nuclear plants, mines, SEZs et al-in the name of which, land is being acquired across...

-The Indian Express   Migration of labourers from Bihar in search of livelihood to places like Punjab and Delhi has declined by over 26 per cent, thanks to initiatives taken by the Nitish Kumar government in the past five years to check their exodus, according to a survey report. Flight of unskilled workers from Bihar to different parts of the country came down by 26.53 per cent in 2006-08 as compared to 2001-03,...

-The Economic Times Chief Economic Adviser Kaushik Basu on Friday said that the government should consider providing free health care for the poor and significantly increase its spending on the health sector. Citing examples of other developing nations like Bangladesh that have better life expectancy and infant mortality rate than India, Basu added that the country has not yet attached adequate Importance to the health sector which might prove detrimental for the...

-The Hindu   Making it clear that it will not go into the policy mechanism of deregulation, the Supreme Court on Friday declined to entertain a public interest writ petition questioning the repeated hike in the price of petroleum products. Chief Justice S.H. Kapadia told counsel Upamanyu Hazarika, appearing for the All-India Youth Federation, “We cannot decide on pricing. It is a policy and legislative matter. We will not interfere in it. The...

-The Times of India   The court orders directing Times Now to deposit Rs 100 crore as a precondition for appeal in a defamation case involving Justice P B Sawant appears to have become a rallying point for the media, both electronic and print. On Friday, three top media organizations joined two journalist bodies, Editors' Guild of India and Foundation of Media Professionals, to stress that such orders pose a threat to the...