-The Times of India The Forest Advisory Committee (FAC), under the ministry of forests and environment, has scheduled yet another meeting on Friday for clearing projects in violation of the Central Information Commission (CIC) orders. Earlier, the commission had pulled up environment minister Jayanthi Natarajan for a similar transgression. In February, the CIC had demanded that the ministry must share with public the details of projects to be cleared ahead of the...

-Governance Now Experts criticise CIC’s declaration that the attorney general is not a public authority, and thus cannot be under the ambit of RTI Act The chief information commission (CIC) might have struck another blow on the momentous Right to Information Act with its recent ruling that the attorney general (AG) is not bound to answer RTI queries. The declaration has drawn flak from RTI activists, experts and former information commissioners. According to the...

-Live Mint Consideration of land acquisition Bill deferred after opposition seeks more time to study new clauses India’s Parliament got down to business on Tuesday with the Lok Sabha passing two critical Bills, the Companies Bill, 2011, and the Banking Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2011, although it deferred consideration of the land acquisition Bill. The new Companies Bill, when it is enacted, is expected to improve the quality of corporate governance by strengthening...

-The Hindu ‘Governments must protect interest of producer, consumer’ The controversy regarding India’s permission to allow foreign direct investment in multi-brand retail and growing “land grab” in Africa by multinational corporations are being closely watched globally by agriculture experts, researchers and donors. At a workshop here on ‘Supporting Policy Research to Inform Agricultural Policy in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia’ — which a few journalists from both regions were invited to attend —...

-The Business Standard Despite industry's worries, land Bill cannot be delayed  The meeting of the Union Cabinet last Thursday was, by the standards of the United Progressive Alliance ( UPA) government at least, quite effective. In what Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh has called the UPA’s “slog overs”, several policy changes were announced, and proposed laws cleared. Perhaps the most important was the approval of the long-awaited changes to India’s colonial-era land...