-Economic and Political Weekly   Much work remains to be done if the new Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act has to mark a meaningful shift for India's adivasi communities. Chitrangada Choudhury (chitrangada@csds.in) Chitrangada Choudhury (chitrangada@csds.in) is a multimedia journalist and researcher, and currently with the Publics and Policies program at the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies, New Delhi. Among the worst excesses committed in India's six decade-old democracy, the forcible displacment...

-The Economic Times NEW DELHI: For the beleaguered UPA government, here are some words of praise. The flagship rural employment guarantee scheme has comes in for praise from the World Bank, five years after it described the programme as "policy barrier" to economic development and poverty alleviation. The World Development Report 2014 has described the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act as a "stellar example of rural development". At the heart...

-PTI The job scheme has established the country as a model of inclusive development worldwide The government's ambitious rural job scheme MNREGA has not only unleashed a revolution in rural India but has also established the country as a model of inclusive development worldwide, says a new World Bank report. Hailing MNREGA, 'The World Development Report 2014 (WDR 2014), Risk and Opportunity -Managing Risk for Development' says the scheme illustrates how good governance and social mobilisation...

-The Times of India Put 50% cap on all reservations Affirmative action can work only in limited doses. It should not be used as a sledgehammer that rules out all other criteria of job selection. The 50% cap on reservations mandated by the Supreme Court earlier should be the absolute upper limit for all categories of reservations. Any relaxation of this upper limit would further dilute meritocracy in public services, impede good...

-The Economic Times A recent Supreme Court interim order has reopened the debate on Aadhaar. We need to understand the implications of the order and reassess the "why" and "what" of Aadhaar. The order says that no service should be denied to a person who doesn't have Aadhaar. This is a fair observation. Aadhaar has always intended to be an instrument of inclusion, not exclusion. The Unique Identification Authority of India, which...