-The Hindustan Times   After farmers, the Central government is looking for a higher compensation regime for forestland acquired from tribals and forest dwellers for various projects. The move comes after the rural development ministry issued a draft land acquisition bill providing for market-linked compensation to farmers and the demand by tribal groups for a national policy on the rehabilitation of tribals displaced by large-scale mining across India to end lop-sided growth....

-The Times of India   Delhi Police on Friday denied permission to veteran social activist Anna Hazare to hold an indefinite hunger strike at the Jantar Mantar in New Delhi on August 16. The Delhi Police referred to the Supreme Court's 2009 order to deny team Anna permission for the indefinite strike anywhere in Delhi, the Times Now channel reports. The police, in its letter to Hazare, said that as Parliament would be...

The Sonia Gandhi-led National Advisory Council (NAC) — at the initiative of which the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme was rolled out in UPA-I — is taking a fresh look at how to strengthen it. The NAC wants the scheme to move from its “relief work mode” to one that would blend “natural resources and labour to build productive assets.” When the NAC meets here on Thursday, the Deep...

Pontius Pilate asked Christ, "What is truth?" and did not wait for an answer. In contrast 'what is civil society?' has provoked innumerable answers, descriptions and definitions. It is suffice to say that the term includes a large chunk of Social Groups outside the State and the group is much bigger than the small spectrum the media is focusing on. Much of India's law-making process has been outside the scrutiny of...

Neelima Mishra, resident of Bahardarpur in Jalgaon, 375 km from Mumbai, was presented the Magsaysay award for her tireless contribution to rural work on Wednesday. Mishra, popularly known as Didi, has been working in Parola tehsil since 2000. “The Magsaysay organisation told me a month ago that my name has featured in the awardees list, but they asked me not to share the news with many people,” Mishra told DNA over phone. “I...