Faced with a massive public outcry and fierce opposition from tribals, the government has, in a landmark move, decided to give tribals and other affected populations a share of the profits made from exploiting mineral resources from their land. The Group of Ministers (GoM) headed by finance minister Pranab Mukherjee on Friday finalised the contours of the draft for a new mining bill, which makes it mandatory for mining companies to...

For past several weeks, thousands of farmers in Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Chhatisgarh, Rajasthan, Bihar and Jharkhand have been left in the lurch. They had planted urd and til crops in a large acreage, and to their dismay no grain formation took place in the standing crop. Unable to bear the economic loss, at least four farmers have reportedly committed suicide. Thousands of farmers have been pushed deeper into economic distress....

The CAG indicts Uttarakhand for pursuing hydel power projects indiscriminately without concern for the environment. IN a severe indictment of the Uttarakhand government, the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India said it was pushing the State towards a major environmental catastrophe by following a highly ambitious hydropower policy. In a report titled “Performance Audit of Hydropower Development Through Private Sector Participation”, which was released recently, the CAG substantiates the allegations...

Mining companies will have to start paying compensation to project-affected people right from the day a mining block is allocated to them and not when they start generating profits, a proposal that will further sweeten the deal for those who lose their land to industrialisation, but stoke more protest from miners. Once the project starts making profits, the displaced families will be provided an annuity income from the net income, but...

A patent is an artificial property right; it is created by the government, and would not exist if there were no government or if it did not grant patents. It is then for the government to decide whether to grant a patent or not. But a government would not normally make the decision arbitrarily; it would follow some rules. The rules universally followed are novelty, non-obviousness and commercial value. A...