The proposed land acquisition Bill should adopt scores of suggestions coming from judges. Few laws have drawn criticism from the Supreme Court with such regular frequency as has the Land Acquisition Act, all the more so in recent times as the weak links in the archaic law have led to continuing legal and political battles and bloodletting. Last month, the Supreme Court identified five areas of conflict arising from the inadequacies of...

The National Food Security Bill, 2010 that aims to provide subsidised foodgrain to the very poor is welcome, but its definition of ‘food security’ is too narrow. The Rome declaration on World Food Security (at the World Food Summit in 1996) states that “we, the heads of state and government ... reaffirm the right of everyone to have (physical and economic) access to safe and nutritious food, consistent with the...

In a rare recognition, the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) has acknowledged the role of low-cost, green toilet technology developed by Indian NGO Sulabh International in achieving United Nation's Millennium Development Goals. ASCE has said that Sulabh's indigenous technology will not only help in tackling the issue of global warming but also improve community health, hygiene and environment in the developing world. According to Sulabh's founder Bindeshwar Pathak, who visited...

PRIME Minister Manmohan Singh complimented his government on the progress of flagship programmes in his opening statement at the national press conference held recently, but was candid about challenges related to their implementation. UPA’s schemes for the poor have been at the core of the government’s ‘inclusive development’ agenda and were credited with bringing Congress back to power. Yet the government is unable to implement well the Mahatma Gandhi National...

The world needs to act quickly to counter the erosion of species. The task is particularly important for India, one of the 12 mega-biodiversity centres.  May 22 marked the International Day for Biological Diversity. It commemorates the adoption of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) that day in 1992. As of December 2009, exactly 192 countries and the European Commission were signatories to it. This year has been declared the...