-The Telegraph New Delhi: A joint parliamentary committee has favoured restoring most of the provisions of the UPA's 2013 land law into the land acquisition bill the Centre wants to pass, signalling a climb-down by the government. Sources said that even the BJP members on the 30-member panel had favoured scrapping the exemptions that the NDA's current bill provided from the social impact assessment (SIA) and consent provisions. This would not have been...

-Business Standard Ruling party MPs suggest changes to six of the nine amendments proposed by govt to the 2013 Act The government is set to relent on the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement (Amendment) Bill, 2015. On Monday, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) members of a parliamentary joint committee on the Bill suggested amendments that effectively bring back the social impact assessment and consent clauses,...

-The Hindu Employment in villages is largely in agriculture sector, while industrial employment is less than four per cent. The Standing Conference of Public Enterprises (SCOPE) has advocated transformation and development of “smart villages” across the country to improve standard of living in the rural areas and boost the rural economy. Development of rural India holds the key to the nation’s sustainable economic growth, it said. SCOPE Director-General U.D. Choubey told The Hindu...

-Business Standard Even amended version passed by Lok Sabha could be diluted Reconciled to the fact that it will have no option but to cave in to the diktat of the opposition on the 2015 Land Acquisition Resettlement and Rehabilitation (LARR) Bill in the Rajya Sabha where it is in a minority, the Narendra Modi-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government is preparing to virtually abandon its own bill. This could cause even more...

-PTI Sources in Congress said that it had sought restoration of the consent of 80 per cent of land owners to be obtained for private projects and that of 70 per cent for PPP ones. Congress, CPI-M and JD-U have sought a "total withdrawal" of proposed changes by the NDA government in the 2013 Land Act and inclusion of some additional measures to further strengthen the law in favour of farmers. In...