-The Hindustan Times   The Allahabad high court verdict on Noida and Greater Noida land acquisition cases has fuelled hopes of a better deal among the farmers of Yamuna Expressway, the third industrial development authority in Gautam Budh Nagar district. Many of the 30-odd villages along the Noida-Agra toll road have moved court, seeking increased cash relief, regularisation of abadi land and allotment of developed plots. In the first phase, the high court had...

Today is the ''International Day for the Eradication of Poverty'', so it an appropriate day to note how necessary it still is to emphasise this concern among Indian policy makers. Sadly, lack of official awareness is evident in all sorts of recent policy measures, for example in the cynicism of increasing oil prices that feed into all other prices with cascading effects, even when inflation has already imposed huge burdens on...

-PTI   A meeting of the Empowered Group of Ministers (EGoM) on food, headed by Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee and scheduled for today, has been postponed due to differences among ruling allies, especially the NCP, over the sugar export policy. The meeting was deferred as the NCP leader and Agriculture Minister, Sharad Pawar, wanted a clear policy on sugar export for 2011-12 to be decided this month, but Food Minister KV Thomas was...

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today reached out to India’s civil society and sought to be in sync with the restive public mood worldwide. Singh warmly appreciated “Anna Hazareji’s movement”, condemning the physical attacks on Team Anna members in recent days, sympathised with the sentiments of the Occupy Wall Street protests and praised the role of the judiciary as central to India’s democracy. In a wide-ranging interaction with journalists on his flight home...

The year 2010 endured 950 natural disasters, 90 percent of which were weather-related and cost the global community well over 130 billion dollars. From wildfires in Brazil to record rainfall in the United States to the severe drought and famine in the Horn of Africa, it has become clear to many that quick and radical decisions need to be made about the world's future.  One of the biggest advocates of this position...