"The Earth upon which the sea, and the rivers and waters, upon which food and the tribes of man have arisen, upon which this breathing, moving life exists, shall afford us precedence in drinking." - Prithvi Sukta, Atharva Veda Land is life. It is the basis of livelihoods for peasants and indigenous people across the Third World and is also becoming the most vital asset in the global economy. As the...

-The Business Standard   The Jagatsinghpur district administration may resume land acquisition work for the Posco project at the anti-Posco stronghold of Gobindpur from Wednesday even though there is no official confirmation yet. In the run-up to the beginning of land acquisition at Gobindpur, the additional district magistrate of Paradip, Sarojkant Chaudhury today conducted a close-door preparatory meeting at Kujang. Narayan Jena, the Jagatsinghpur district collector said, “The administration is awaiting the views...

The draft has been approved and is expected to be released shortly for comments There must be a bar on assembly for discussing young persons marrying as per their choice Village elders have no right to interfere with the life and liberty of such couples To tackle the menace of ‘honour killings' in some parts of the country and deal with illegal orders from by ‘khap panchayats,' the Law Commission has proposed legislation...

Under attack by Opposition, civil society groups, government is not taking chances ‘Opposition version of Ramlila Maidan events exaggerated' In the aftermath of the Baba Ramdev episode, the dominant view in the United Progressive Alliance government is that it must tackle corruption on a war-footing, and on two fronts: it must not only proceed swiftly with the legislation it has promised — the Lokpal Bill and the law on black money —...

On a day when the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) issued notice to the government seeking reports within two weeks on the early morning crackdown on Baba Ramdev's supporters on the Ramlila Grounds here on Sunday, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh described the episode as “unfortunate” but justified it, saying there was “no alternative.” In his first comments on the episode here, Dr. Singh told journalists: “It is unfortunate that the operation...