SCORES of farmers mired in debt in the arid cotton belt of Vidarbha in Maharashtra are close to losing their property rights, as the state-controlled Land Development Bank has kick-started the process to recover dues from them. A top revenue ministry official said the process to recover loans by selling off land belonging to those farmers who have defaulted is “definitely on” and could start as early as July 23....

Vedanta’s plans to source bauxite from Niyamgiri hills in Kalahandi district of Orissa appear to have run into trouble with the Attorney General opining that the ministry of environment has the powers to stop diversion of forest land till rights of tribals under the Forest Rights Act are settled. After the environment ministry kept on hold clearance for the Vedanta project, questions were raised on the mandate of the department...

To millions of Indians, development is dreadful word aimed at denying them even source of sustenance Why is state's vision of development at such great odds with the people it purports to develop? The Supreme Court has expressed concern that the path of development by depriving landowners of their land seemed to give rise to insurgency and political extremism which, along with terrorism, are supposed to be the three gravest threats to...

In this land of rolling hills, made lush by the monsoon, traffic ceases after dusk. So it is unusual to hear jeeps running through the night on the winding roads of tribal south Rajasthan. Through the day, the local police, villagers and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) are out in force, trying to stop what they can only slow—the mass trafficking of children across the border into Gujarat from the Rajasthan districts that...

In the summer of 2006, I travelled with a group of scholars and writers through the district of Dantewada, then (as now) the epicentre of the conflict between the Indian State and Maoist rebels. Writing about my experiences in a four-part series published in The Telegraph, I predicted that the conflict would intensify, because the Maoists would not give up their commitment to armed struggle, while the government would not...