From the Middle East to Madagascar, high prices are spawning land grabs and ousting dictators. Welcome to the 21st-century food wars. In the United States, when world wheat prices rise by 75 percent, as they have over the last year, it means the difference between a $2 loaf of bread and a loaf costing maybe $2.10. If, however, you live in New Delhi, those skyrocketing costs really matter: A doubling in...

The first casualty of the new policy could be NTPC’s proposed plant in Burdwan district West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee may soon announce a new land use policy which says the government will not acquire land for industrial projects, leaving it to project promoters to do so. “They (companies) operate in a market economy, so must deal with market forces. They shouldn’t ask the (state) government to acquire land for them,”...

-The Telegraph   Tata Motors has said the Singur land-return bill does not state the reasons for the transfer of the Nano plant, breaking its silence to portray a vivid description of the agitation that preceded its pullout without mentioning either Mamata Banerjee or her party. The Tatas added that “appropriate steps” would be taken after studying the bill that mentions Tata Motors “abandoned” the project. The bill was passed in the...

-Reuters   Sitting at the edge of fields in the heart of India's grain bowl, Gurdayal Singh Malik shakes his head in resignation about the lack of workers needed for his 60-acre farm, blaming the government's flagship welfare program, the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MNREGS), for the shortage. Ever since the start of the program, which guarantees 100 days of work a year for rural households, the flow of...

Social development zones (SDZs) represent a new approach to creating education and health institutions in the country connecting emerging opportunities in policy. These also address some major constraints that Indian private investment faces today in investing in these two critical sectors of development that directly impact on unlocking human potential. These opportunities are presented by the commencement of Rajiv Awas Yojana, a property-rights driven effort at moving towards a slum-free India...