-The United Nations   An estimated 80 per cent of the world’s refugees now live in developing countries and yet anti-refugee sentiment is growing in many industrialized nations, the United Nations said in a report unveiled today, urging the richer States to address the deep imbalance. In absolute terms and in relation to the size of their economies, poor countries shoulder a disproportionate refugee burden, according to the 2010 Global Trends report...

-The Hindu   Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission Montek Singh Ahluwalia said on Friday that the 12th Five Year Plan, which commences in 2012, would have to contend with a “severe water crisis.” “The water crisis is even more serious than the energy problem,” Dr. Ahluwalia said at a two-day regional consultation meeting of the southern States. Urging for a political consensus on the adoption of the Public Trust Doctrine in the...

-The United Nations   Investing a relatively small amount each year in the forestry sector could halve deforestation, create millions of new jobs and help tackle the devastating effects of climate change, according to a United Nations report released today to mark World Environment Day. The report, “Forests in a Green Economy: A Synthesis,” finds that an additional $40 billion spent each year in the forestry sector – or just 0.034 per...

Oxfam, an international confederation of 15 human rights organisations fighting poverty and injustice, launched a new campaign here on Wednesday for a hunger-free world even as it announced that the number of hungry people the world over has crossed the billion mark and one in four of the world's hungry people live in India. Despite doubling the size of its economy between 1990 and 2005, the number of people in India...

Governments can acquire land for “public purpose” while making sure that the displaced are compensated, relocated and rehabilitated. THE violent conflict over land acquisition in Uttar Pradesh and the persisting resistance to land acquisition for the Posco project in Jagatsinghpur district of Orissa are merely recent instances that exemplify the growing stand-off between the Indian state and its people centred on land. On the one side are governments (both Central...