The Congress-led United Progressive Alliance government’s proposed land acquisition law, a politically sensitive and critical piece of legislation that could potentially remove a big roadblock to industrial investment, aims to address rehabilitation and resettlement (R&R), providing safeguards for both land owners and livelihood losers, while clearly defining the “public purpose” for which land can be acquired by the government. “This draft Bill seeks to balance the need for facilitating land acquisition...
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‘We’ll take the burden for employees for some time, but how long?’ by P Vaidyanathan Iyer
RV Gumaste, a member of Kirloskar’s project team that set up Bellary’s first iron-making unit in 1994, has never seen such times since he first moved base from Pune 17 years ago. “We will take the burden for our regular employees for some time. But how long?” says the industry veteran, who was appointed Managing Director of Kirloskar Ferrous Industries Ltd in July 2003. The Rs 1,100-crore company has 800...
More »Useless pharmaceutical studies cause real harm by Carl Elliott
Last month, the Archives of Internal Medicine published a scathing reassessment of a 12-year-old research study of Neurontin, a seizure drug made byPfizer. The study, which had included more than 2,700 subjects and was carried out by Parke-Davis (now part of Pfizer), was notable for how poorly it was conducted. The investigators were inexperienced and untrained, and the design of the study was so flawed it generated few if any...
More »New NAC Bill combines Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation & Resettlement by K Balchand
The United Progressive Alliance government on Friday unveiled its second draft Bill addressing the burning issues of land acquisition as well as rehabilitation and resettlement (R&R). The National Land Acquisition and Rehabilitation and Resettlement Bill, 2011, as recommended by the National Advisory Council, will make it mandatory that gram sabhas are consulted and the R&R package is executed before the acquired land is transferred. Union Minister of Rural Development Jairam Ramesh...
More »Poverty set aside for village computer by Anirban Choudhury
Most of the residents of Ambadipa are farmers and almost all their monthly earnings are less than Rs 2,000. But that did not stop them from bringing technology to their village for their children. All the residents of this little hamlet tucked away in a Dooars block had contributed to buy the only computer that Ambadipa now boasts of. “It was difficult for us to pay, but we did it. All the...
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