-The Indian Express In a bid to ease the process of acquiring land, the Union Cabinet on Monday recommended the promulgation of an ordinance to amend the Land Acquisiton Act, 2013, by including five new categories of projects that would not require prior consent from affected families as well as Social Impact Assessment (SIA). These include projects related to defence, rural infrastructure and industrial corridors. The sensitive provisions relating to compensation, relief...

-The Hindu Amendments relax requirements of consent, Social Impact Assessment Seeking to strike a balance between farmers' welfare and the strategic and developmental needs of the country, the Union Cabinet on Monday urgently cleared an ordinance to unshackle defence, infrastructure and rural power projects caught in land acquisition procedures. Through this executive order, the Cabinet has amended the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, 2013. The 2013...

-The Hindustan Times Despite constitutional protection, positive discrimination policies and earmarked budgets, India's 104 million tribal people remain among the poorest and most nutritionally deprived social groups. In 2005-06, 54% of tribal children under five years of age were stunted, which is a measure of chronic undernutrition; this is well above the national average of 48%. Studies carried out between 2006 and 2013 in different states reveal that the percentage of...

-The Telegraph New Delhi: Rural Development minister Chaudhary Birender Singh today held a meeting with senior officials amid indications that the ministry is planning an ordinance to amend the year-old land acquisition law which industry has opposed. Among those who attended the two-hour meeting was Vandana Kumari Jena, secretary, department of land resources. Sources said the Rural Development ministry was under pressure from the finance and infrastructure ministries to amend the Right to...

-The Hindu None of our Teacher Education programmes has ever seriously tried to achieve a clear and convincing enough understanding of what one tries to achieve through education. It always has been a rhetoric of larger aims and working for myopically understood parental and market aspirations All curricula are situated in contexts and are simultaneously guided by ideals. Therefore, an understanding of and a balance between the two is essential. We have succeeded...