-Economic and Political Weekly   The stage is all set for the resumption of iron ore mining in Goa after it was suspended in the state in 2012, to curb its indiscriminate and illegal mining. The Goa government's decision to renew the mining leases comes at a time when the economics of iron ore mining have changed and environmental concerns have gained more prominence. Pamela D'Mello (dmello.pamela@gmail.com) is a Goa-based journalist. The state government...

-Business Standard The Shanta Kumar Committee on restructuring FCI has suggested the reach of the National Food Security Act be curtailed to 40 per cent of the population The National Democratic Alliance government set up the high-level Shanta Kumar Committee to restructure and reform the state-owned Food Corporation of India. Instead, the panel ended up providing a road map to restructure the entire farming and food security policy of the government. In...

-The Hindustan Times Tiger population in India is estimated to be 2,226 in 2014, according to a new report released on Tuesday. The big cat population in 2010 was an estimated 1,706. The number in the central Indian landscape had gone down four years ago. "While the tiger population is falling in the world, it is rising in India. It is a great news," environment minister Prakash Javadekar said. "Never before such an exercise...

The tribal or the Scheduled Tribe communities constitute only 8.6 percent of India's population and yet, they are around 40 percent of those displaced due to ‘development’ projects. In the midst of a raging debate on the new Land Acquisition Ordinance, a new report brings out many such paradoxes of development versus displacement of India’s indigenous or Adivasi people. The report exposes the anomalies of land alienation, displacement and forced...

-Down to Earth This has happened in past surveys also, say experts The figures in the 19th livestock census report and the recently released survey report by the National Sample Survey Office (NSSO) don't tally. While the census report that was released this September shows that number of sheep and goats stood at 200 million in the 2012-13, the 70th round of National Sample Survey showed a huge decline in their number...