The proposed land acquisition Bill should adopt scores of suggestions coming from judges. Few laws have drawn criticism from the Supreme Court with such regular frequency as has the Land Acquisition Act, all the more so in recent times as the weak links in the archaic law have led to continuing legal and political battles and bloodletting. Last month, the Supreme Court identified five areas of conflict arising from the inadequacies of...

Nine of 10 mud-eating children are in the last stage of malnutrition. Eight of 10 people are deprived of every national social-security net and live with starvation and hunger. The average life span is 40 In April, the Hindustan Times revealed acute deprivation in the Uttar Pradesh village of Ganne, part of the former constituency of India’s first Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru.   Now, a Supreme Court inquiry team that visited the area...

Over 11 elders including women and a couple of children hailing from Orissa's Koratpur District managed to save themselves from the clutches of serfdom in an obscure village of Karnataka. Buzz up!They reached Orissa on Wednesday, where a voluntary forum apprised the District Labour Officer and facilitated their return to their native village. The role of middlemen luring poor landless labourers came to light due to the efforts of Pragati, the non-governmental...

India’s food inflation slowed as finance minister Pranab Mukherjee said agriculture prices may cool further on prospects of sufficient rains this year. An index measuring wholesale prices of agriculture products including lentils, rice and vegetables compiled by the commerce ministry rose 16.61% in the week ended 17 April from a year earlier. It gained 17.65% the previous week, according to a statement in New Delhi on Thursday. Mukherjee on Wednesday vowed to...

While you were glued to your flat screen, with your eyeballs popping out every time the ball was hit for a six, in a dark corner of India - in a Haryana village very close to the national capital - a dog was barking. Since it was a Dalit dog (in India, even dogs have caste), the upper caste Jaats were getting all riled up. So they decided to teach...