-The Business Standard It will make the coercive powers of the land acquisition law irrelevant, though including it in the central Bill would be unconstitutional The proposal to amend the central Land Acquisition Bill to provide for leasing of land rather than acquiring it is just not constitutionally feasible. Land is a state subject and the Centre cannot legislate on leasing at all. But as an idea it is great and should...

-The Hindu Business Line   The Bill does not take into account the extremely varied nature of land markets. It looks like the Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation And Resettlement Bill is going to be finally presented in Parliament for passage in the current session. The full details of what is in the current Bill aren't known because over 150 amendments may have been made to the last version that was available for public scrutiny. But...

-The Indian Express The Supreme Court on Thursday ruled that the Vedanta Group's bauxite mining project in the Niyamgiri Hills of Orissa will have to get the gram sabha's clearance on whether it affects the cultural and religious rights of the tribals and forest dwellers living in Rayagada and Kalahandi districts. While the gram sabha's nod is compulsory under the Forest Rights Act, the court made it clear that the Act confers...

-The Times of India A significant part of the Manmohan Singh government's political agenda for the 2014 election looks set to sail through Parliament with an all-party meeting on Thursday putting its seal of approval on a contentious bill on land acquisition that enhances compensation for farmers. The government countered criticism that the bill's provisions make land acquisition more time consuming while pushing up costs, but all major political parties seemed...

-The Guardian Land rights not just issue for developing world as report shows public subsidies help a few firms 'grab' vast tracts of EU land Vast tracts of land in Europe are being "grabbed" by large companies, speculators, wealthy foreign buyers and pension funds in a similar way to in developing countries, according to a major new report. Chinese corporations, Middle Eastern sovereign wealth and hedge funds, as well as Russian oligarchs and...