-The Indian Express   Gandhinagar: Acting on a petition that, among other prayers, seeks Compensation of Rs 5 lakhs for the families of 692 farmers who reportedly committed suicide in Gujarat between January 2003 and October 2012, a bench of Supreme Court issued notice to Gujarat Government directing it to file reply in four weeks. The petitioner group has been identified as Citizens Resource & Action Initiative (CRANTI). It had earlier,...

-The Hindustan Times To kick-start stalled development projects and remove investment bottlenecks, the government is expected to make changes to the land acquisition act during the winter session that opens on November 24. Dilution of the consent clause, restricting social impact assessment to large projects and giving states the powers to define "emergency" under "urgency clause" for acquiring land are some of the major amendments -- demanded by various states -- that...

-The Hindu VISAKHAPATNAM: It is estimated that crop in 2,300 ha has been damaged. Most of the cane grown in the area is used for making jaggery. Even if some of the cane can be used to make jaggery, the units are in no condition to work as there is no power. Sugarcane, paddy, cashew, casuarina - anything that came in the way of the severe cyclonic storm Hudhud met with the...

-The Business Standard Scheme faces pincer attack with a proposed higher proportion of expenditure on material, reducing the budget available to pay wages The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) faces a pincer attack under the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government, with parallel moves promising to shrink and mutate the nature of the scheme. Two of the moves have been revealed - a proposed higher proportion of expenditure on material,...

-The Business Standard   NC Saxena, a former member of the National Advisory Council believes that the regulatory regime in the states continues to be oppressive. In an e-mailed interview with Aditi Phadnis, Saxena says that the fundamental problem in India is the low tax-GDP ratio and neither the last government nor the current one seems interested in increasing revenues. Edited excerpts: * The new government appears to be watering down a lot...