-The Telegraph   The Mamata Banerjee government today started the process of returning land to farmers in Singur, snubbing the Tata attempt to open a dialogue to maintain status quo on the 997-acre plot. Rabindranath Bhattacharya, the school education minister and MLA from Singur, and Becharam Manna, the MLA from Haripal, oversaw distribution of over 3,000 application forms among farmers in Gopalnagar, Beraberi, Bajemelia, Joymollah, Khaserbheri and Singherbheri. These farmers had not accepted...

The episodes of violence in land acquisition by the government, as witnessed recently in Bhatta-Parsaul in Uttar Pradesh and in other states earlier, occur because patterns of violence are inbuilt into the process. Despite a bill pending in Parliament since 2007, there has been little effort by political parties to evolve a consensus on acquisition of agricultural land for non-agricultural purposes. The law as at present and also the provisions...

-The Economic Times   Over half the country's workforce is self-employed and women receive less pay than men for similar jobs, latest government data shows. While 51% of the country's total workforce are self-employed, only 15.5% are regular wagers or salaried employees and 33.5% casual Labourers, according to a survey by the National Sample Survey Office (NSSO), the key findings of which were released on Friday. The number of people selfemployed...

-The Telegraph   Multiple landslides across West Sikkim last night triggered by torrential rain have killed 16 persons and cut off the inter-district road connectivity and power and water supply for more than 20 hours. The highest death toll was reported from Khurong Kewa Dara along the Pelling-Dentam road, 15km from Geyzing, the district headquarters of West Sikkim. A three-month-old baby was among the 14 people who were buried alive at Khurong...

Ensuring food security to all is one of India’s top policy agendas today. Given a large mass of poverty in the country, it is not surprising and no one would perhaps disagree with the need to achieve this as soon as possible. But the varied policy instruments that can be used towards achieving this goal draw sharp differences among the stakeholders. What is food security? The World Food Summit of 1996...