The Karnataka government, which is in the thick of controversy over acquisition of land for several big-ticket investors, is in no mood to accept certain changes proposed in the new Land Acquisition and Resettlement & Rehabilitation Bill tabled in Parliament last week. Instead, the government is in the process of revamping its existing land acquisition policy. The state government is not agreeable to the 80 per cent consent norm proposed in...

There are structural aspects to a problem as complex as corruption. These cannot be tackled through punishment alone. Just as our society tends to latch on to holy men for miracle cures, in recent weeks, the urban middle classes have placed great hopes on an anti-corruption movement led by a pious man in a Gandhi cap. (The other claim on leadership by a holy man in red robes did not...

Do agencies like the Ford Foundation push their own agenda through the NGOs they support? It’s often said, tongue in cheek, that India’s “shadow” government works out of the nondescript, low-slung buildings abutting the Lodhi Garden in Delhi. That’s partly hubris, but it also stems from being close to the centre of power. This rarefied zone houses powerful “cultural” institutions like the India International Centre, as well as a host...

The government on Wednesday introduced the Nuclear Safety Regulatory Authority (NSRA) Bill seeking to create two regulatory bodies as part of measures to strengthen safety at the country’s atomic power plants, fulfilling an assurance given by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in the aftermath of Fukushima nuclear disaster in Japan in March. The government had said on 26 April it would draft a Bill to create an independent and autonomous regulator that...

-The Economic Times   The government has defended its new land acquisition bill as industry-friendly, refuting criticism that provisions contained in the legislation were retrograde and would push up costs for state-run and private companies. Industry groups had slammed the new Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Bill (LARR) 2011, cleared by the cabinet earlier this week and tabled in parliament on Wednesday, saying it was "burdensome" and "anti-development". But Rural Development Minister...