-The Telegraph The Prime Minister today expressed surprise that “concurrent evaluation” of the rural job scheme was “not in good shape” and asked Planning Commission deputy chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia to “apply his mind to making good this deficiency”. Concurrent evaluation is an assessment of a scheme’s impact, strength and weaknesses while it is being implemented, as distinct from the annual CAG audit or a post-mortem. Its objective is to identify problems...

-The Telegraph The Centre today announced fresh guidelines to protect the rights of forest dwellers and “undo” years of “injustice” these tribal people have had to face over claims on land and minor produce. Sources said the Union tribal affairs ministry, which issued the guidelines, felt the implementation of the forest rights act (FRA) had been “poor” on the ground. “The FRA aims to undo the historic injustice made against the tribal people...

-The Hindu The population situation in Kerala is a fascinating area of study, says Dr. P.S. Nair, Professor and Head of the Department of Population Studies in the University of Botswana There are several billion reasons why each of us should be interested in the observation of the annual World Population Day (July 11). Kerala occupies a special place in demographic studies in India on account of it being the most densely...

-The Telegraph Acquiring land for special economic zones may become tougher. The rural development ministry has redrafted the Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement (LARR) Bill with a provision that says the proposed law would apply to land acquisition under the Special Economic Zone Act, 2005. This means if the redrafted bill is passed, landlosers will have to be consulted and their consent taken before their land can be acquired under the SEZ Act,...

-The Hindu Unsustainable import competition and the end of the investment subsidy that the sale of under-priced resources provided to Indian companies are the main reasons why the economy has slowed down What has been called the ‘golden age’ of India’s economic growth was underpinned by global integration, high rates of investment and savings growth and low current account deficits. The slowdown is characterised by a sharp deceleration in investment growth on...