-The Telegraph The Bengal government’s hands-off stand on land has found its way into its PPP policy, the public-private partnership mantra that was supposed to neutralise adversities and make the state attractive for investors. The new triple-P policy, notified by the state finance department on June 21, makes it clear the state government cannot acquire land for private investors even if they are willing to partner the state in its pet projects. The...

-The Times of India It was meant to showcase the government's new-found resolve to push the reforms agenda in order to stanch the declining growth rate and to repulse the perception of governance freeze. Instead, it ended up publicizing yet again the government's vulnerability as well as its reluctance to speed up decision making at the cost of angering allies on the eve of presidential poll.  The UPA on Thursday withdrew its...

Mamata Banerjee today said private investors “are staying away from Bengal because land is not available for them”. However, she laid stress on the importance of public sector projects — the state has attracted some — saying “public sector investment is also investment”. The chief minister, whose government’s hands-off policy on land acquisition has so far acted as a deterrent for private industry, said at a railway programme in Hooghly’s Dankuni: “The...

A parliamentary panel has cited the practice in developed countries to reject a key provision in the land acquisition bill allowing the government to acquire plots for private companies. The committee said in the US, Japan and Canada, land is purchased by private enterprises, not acquired by the state. Why should India continue this “anomalous practice”, asked the parliamentary standing committee on rural development in its report on the Land Acquisition,...

There is need to find indigenous technologies and equipment to deal with this constant and undeclared threat There is increasing concern in the strategic community and the general public about cyber security and we are in the final stages of preparing a whole-of-government cyber security architecture. Our increasing dependence on cyberspace and the internet is evident. We had over 100 million internet users in India over two years ago. Add to this...