The Centre on Wednesday constituted a four-member committee to ascertain the status of implementation of the Scheduled Tribes and Other Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006 and other rehabilitation measures taken before granting final approval for diversion of forest land for the establishment of the Integrated Steel Plant and Captive Port by Posco-India at Jagatsinghpur district in Orissa. This follows complaints from the local people regarding violation of the...

It isn't too much of a stretch to say that India is made up of many nations. A comparison of state-level and country-level data from the newly released multi-dimensional poverty index shows that while Kerala and Goa are at a similar level of development as 'middle-income countries' like Indonesia, Jharkhand and Bihar are similar to 'least-developed countries' like the Democratic Republic of Congo. Earlier this month, the new MPI measure...

The views of the Union Ministry of Environment and Forest (MoEF) panel on violation of Forest Right Act in the Posco project site area is likely to further delay the land acquisition process and precipitate the problems for the South Korean steel major which has been facing uphill task in acquiring land for the project due to local protests. The MoEF panel visited the Posco project site villages yesterday and interacted...

The National Advisory Council's proposals on the Food Security Bill represent a bad deal for the poor. The struggle for an effective and equitable Food Security Bill (FSB) has received a setback with the disappointing proposals put forward by the National Advisory Council. There is a disturbing disjuncture between what is being claimed and the actual implications of the proposals. Indeed it may be said that the NAC proposals create new...

The three members central team, constituted by ministry of forest and environment and ministry of Tribal affairs visited proposed POSCO site villages and held public consultation to enquire about the implementation of ‘ The Scheduled Tribes and other Traditional Forest Dwellers and Forest Rights Act-2006 and Rules 2007’ The central team led by Ashish Kothari, a member of a Pune based NGO Kalparvriksh, Dr Ravi Chellam from wild life conservation society...