-FirstPost.com One of the fears that has been raised in the aftermath of the government promulgating an ordinance to amend the Land Acquisition Act is that land will be taken away for other purposes and given that, the amount of land used for farming will come down dramatically. This is a very specious argument that is being made. Data from World Bank shows that around 60.3 percent of India's land area is...

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...

-FirstPost.com   Arvind Panagariya. The man is the message. When the 65 year old planning commission makes way for a putatively leaner NITI Aayog, the expectation is that it will change the era of centralised and top-down planning to a decentralised and participatory process. As expected, apart from the Congress ruled states, the move didn't face any noteworthy resistance. The Tamil Nadu government appeared to even rejoice its demise. However, what even the critics...

-Business Standard The ordinance has returned near absolute power of discretion in land acquisition, except in tribal areas, into the hands of the bureaucracy yet again Even after the National Democratic Alliance's land ordinance, governments will still need the consent of tribal gram sabhas in all Schedule V and VI areas of the country before acquiring land for themselves or for public-private projects. While the land ordinance has done away with the need...

-The Hindu Business Line Its bold labour reforms are a trendsetter, lending impetus to the ‘Make in India' initiative With ‘Make in India' taking centrestage in India's plan to position itself on a high growth track, far-reaching reforms in the labour, tax and land laws hold the key to the government's ambitions. The abundance of workers is undoubtedly India's biggest asset for its emergence as a preferred manufacturing destination. While the Centre has initiated...