In India peasantry is under assault. There is a five-pronged attack on this class and the mighty Indian state is sometimes an active and sometimes a passive abettor. The first point of attack is from the corporate sector. The corporate sector is in a land grab mode. Though not justified, one could understand their urge to get land for industry and real estate purposes. Not that they are causing aggressive...
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The Land Bank Ledger by Sugata Srinivasaraju
The Karnataka government is getting ready to host the Global Investors Meet (3- 4 June). A similar jamboree held some years ago, when S M Krishna was chief minister, had been a resounding flop, but this one, the government believes, would be a runaway success. There has been no dearth of publicity for the event in the media and there has been no shortage of roadshows on foreign soil. A...
More »Infrastructure Index for North East by Sushanta Talukdar
In order to reduce intra-regional disparity and better targeting of schemes and projects in North Eastern States the Ministry of Development of North East Region (DoNER) has prepared a composite “District Infrastructure Index (DII)” for all the districts of the region. The DII is based on seven broad indicators — transport facilities in terms of road density and road quality, energy, water supply, education, health facilities, communication infrastructure and banking facilities. The...
More »The Crimson Brief by Raman Kirpal
RAJINDER SACHAR is one of India’s renowned civil rights activists. A former Chief Justice of the Delhi High Court, Sachar has done pioneering work in enabling a legal framework to assist hundreds who stand accused by the police across India for waging war against the State, many of them with little or dubious evidence. Though 87 years old, Sachar continues to work tirelessly with one of India’s key rights groups,...
More »Every poor counts: Block-level picture to capture real suffering
The government will compile figures at the district and block levels to arrive at a more accurate identification of poor for better targeting of welfare schemes. So far, the poor in India have only been counted at the national and state levels. The Planning Commission has commissioned a study which will come up with these relevant numbers soon. The poverty cut-offs (a minimum monthly expenditure below which people are considered...
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