-The Hindu Business Line After the 1980s, special interest groups have preferred to knock on the doors of the judiciary. In India today, matters of public interest seem to get their due only when the Supreme Court has added its two cents. Interest groups, representing both general and special interests, petition the judiciary actively. In an era where virtually all institutions in India have been vulnerable to political capture, the judiciary seems like...

-Live Mint The experience of Kerala and Tripura shows how panchayati raj can help in the empowerment of women Chulubari (Tripura)/Kanjikuzhy (Kerala): Her relatives warned Hena Das, a resident of Chulubari in Tripura, against taking up political office because it wasn't "meant for women". Das disregarded the warnings. Two years on, she has no regrets. She also has no male colleagues; her fellow representatives on the board of an 12-member panchayat are all...

-The Hindu Business Line   The Bill does not take into account the extremely varied nature of land markets. It looks like the Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation And Resettlement Bill is going to be finally presented in Parliament for passage in the current session. The full details of what is in the current Bill aren't known because over 150 amendments may have been made to the last version that was available for public scrutiny. But...

-The Indian Express The proposed land bill will make transactions fairer and encourage optimal use of the resource In this session, Parliament will take up the necessary and long-delayed Land Acquisition, Resettlement and Rehabilitation Bill. Both major parties have worked out a consensus on the features of the bill. As with any compromise between different interest groups, the bill does not please everyone perfectly, but it finally sets down reasonable terms for...

-Frontline PESA, which is seen as an enabling law for tribal self-governance, is violated brazenly by both the Union government and State governments in the name of development. SINCE October 2012, the Ministry of Rural Development of the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government has apparently been engaged in an exercise to evolve a "National Land Reforms Policy". Over these months, the Ministry wrote to various State governments, highlighting the importance of...