The court presses home its power to intervene when 'little Indians lose their small property' to land acquisition by state governments Parliament has not been able to pass an updated land acquisition law for several years, though this is a burning issue and innocent blood has been shed in many states. Meanwhile, the Supreme Court continues to deliver judgments in which disputes arose several decades ago. Two such decisions in recent...

The cultivable land in India has shrunk marginally by 0.43% to 182.39 million hectare in last five years. This is due to shift in area for non-agricultural purposes such as buildings, road and railways among others. The total agricultural land in 2003-04 was 183.19 million hectares against 182.39 million hectare in 2008-09, a fall of 0.80 million hectare, according to the government data. Major foodgrains producing states like Punjab, West bengal, Bihar and...

Guess what hogs the news? In a country plagued by rural problems and social ills, it's politics and business that find the maximum coverage in newspapers and not health, education, agriculture or environment. A comprehensive study of 10 newspapers in five states from mid-September to mid- November 2010 by The Hoot, a media monitor, found that political news constituted the maximum - 15.7 percent of the total news items, followed by...

Anti-nuclear campaigners in India see the earthquake that hit Japan last week, which threatens the meltdown of the Fukushima atomic power facility there, as a wakeup call for this country’s ambitious nuclear power programme. When India completed a nuclear power cooperation deal with the United States in October 2008, it threw open a 270 billion U.S. dollar market for nuclear reactors. Now members of the 45-nation Nuclear Suppliers’ Group are queuing...

These are figures the Left Front should be wary of as it prepares to defend its citadel of 34 years in West bengal. An analysis of data on the Muslim community released by the chief economist of the National Council of Applied Economic Research, Abu Saleh Sheriff, reveals that the state's minority has benefited little from development measures. In terms of human development indices, the Muslims have fared very poorly. Of the...