-The Times of India Between 60 and 65 million people are estimated to have been displaced in India since Independence, the highest number of people uprooted for development projects in the world.  "This amounts to around one million displaced every year since Independence," says a report released recently by the Working Group on Human Rights in India and the UN (WGHR). "Of these displaced, over 40% are tribals and another 40% consist...

Of late, a childhood friend's 80-year-old mother has taken to writing. Emboldened by her single-mindedness, memories dulled by a lifetime of contingencies now respond readily to the daily rustle of pen on paper. One memory stands out in Surjit Kaur's mind. In 1957, as a fresh eyed schoolteacher from Delhi she went on an educational tour to Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar and West Bengal. It was 10 years after Independence...

-The Hindu The social audit meeting of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MNREGA), held at Shettihalli in Hassan taluk on Friday, was marked by allegations of corruption against officers and heated exchange of words between residents and elected representatives. A few residents, allegedly in an inebriated state, constantly disrupted the meeting, forcing officials to take repeated breaks at the meeting. The meeting was organised as part of a social audit...

Farmers, whose land was acquired at a meagre Rs. 4 per square yard in South West Delhi way back in 1955 in the name of undertaking planned development, have now seized upon the opportunity raised by the report of the Comptroller and Auditor General of India — on the loss caused to the exchequer by leasing away of some of this very land by Indira Gandhi International Airport concessionaire Delhi...

A government report lends credence to the notion of “two Indias”, or the distinction between “India” and “Bharat” – a theme often debated in recent years. At a time when urban India is growing and policy makers have expressed clear preference for the trend, this report, by National Sample Survey Organisation (NSSO), brings India’s deep urban-rural divide into focus, showing disparities in scale and levels of expenditure and consumption and, equally...