-The Indian Express The Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, 2013 (LARR Act), was not passed in a hurry. It was passed 60 years too late, but nearly unanimously with the support of the BJP. The main purpose of the LARR Act was to repeal the Land Acquisition Act, 1894 (the old Act). The old Act was an oppressive colonial law that gave unbridled powers...

-Business Standard Former rural development minister Jairam Ramesh tells Sanjeeb Mukherjee that the Ordinance to amend the land acquisition Act (2013) opens the door for forcible acquisition and undermines the spirit and the substance of the legislation. Edited excerpts: * An oft-repeated argument given by the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government to justify bringing an Ordinance to amend the land acquisition Act (2013) passed by your government is that many Congress-ruled states...

-The New Indian Express   The latest data from the World Bank shows that around 60.3 per cent of India's land area is agricultural. India Brand Equity Foundation, a trust established by the ministry of commerce and industry, confirms this. At 157.35 million hectares, India holds the second largest agricultural land, next only to the US. This should set at rest the fears that have been raised in the aftermath of the...

-The Hindu Business Line Hyderabad: Scientists and researchers struck a note of concern over the projected impact of climate change on Indian agriculture, especially coastal agriculture, and livestock at the just-concluded international conference on Bio-resource and Stress Management here. Laxman Singh Rathore, director general of Indian Meteorological Department, set the tone for the discussions by pointing out that mean warming in India is likely to be in the range of 1.7 to...

-The Hindu The government's reasoning that the land ordinance was meant to extend the benefit of the new law to various types of land acquisitions left uncovered so far is disingenuous Democracy is an exercise in public reason. Democratically elected governments cannot simply throw around the weight of their majority. They have a responsibility to offer good reasons for their decisions. And they must do so publicly. That is why we follow...