-The Times of India HYDERABAD: The extent of arable land in Telangana has registered a decline due to growth in industry, construction of houses, urbanisation and infrastructure development. This was revealed by the Directorate of Economics and Statistics of the government in its report on agricultural statistics for 2015-16. The report revealed that the land put to non-agricultural uses rose from 8.19 lakh hectares in 2008-09 to 8.92 lakh hectares in 2015-16. The...

-The Telegraph New Delhi: The Supreme Court today issued notices to the Centre and seven states, including Bengal, on a plea for return of 45,782 hectares of agricultural land acquired from farmers in the name of creating special economic zones (SEZs) but allegedly diverted by the promoters for other purposes. The petition filed through the SEZ Farmers' Protection Welfare Association of Andhra Pradesh seeks the return of unused land to the farmers...

-The Hindu Court asks States why lands acquired for SEZs remain barren and abandoned Invoking the legal victory of West Bengal’s farmers over the mighty state in Singur, West Bengal, their compatriots across the country, stripped of their agricultural lands by their governments in the name of Special Economic Zone (SEZ), found their voice in the Supreme Court on Monday. A three-judge Bench led by Chief Justice J.S. Khehar asked the Centre and...

-Business Today If you want to really get smart with water, the first thing you should realise is that in most parts of India, water is abundantly available. But you also need to recall what a man named Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi had once said: "There is enough in this world for everyone's need, but not for anyone's greed". Today, what Gandhiji advised is being termed a "paradigm shift" in water management. The...

The term 'development' holds a positive connotation for most policymakers. However, there are examples abound, which indicates that development also cause enormous misery to the people, particularly the poor and the marginalized. Take for instance, the organizing of 2010 Commonwealth Games, due to which massive infrastructural development in the national capital was undertaken when Sheila Dikshit was the Chief Minister of Delhi. It has been estimated that almost 2 lakh...