"India lives in several centuries at the same time. Somehow we manage to progress and regress simultaneously." Arundhati Roy Controversies, protests and violence have marred land acquisition for projects in India. Protests against acquiring agricultural land, inappropriate compensation or environmental impact have been the main reasons for these protests. In most cases, the protests are by farmers who are hardly compensated after their fertile agricultural land is taken over in for...

In the year that has gone by since cyclone Aila devastated the Sunderbans, livelihood opportunities have dried up for the inhabitants of the region. The situation has arisen from a failed crops, dwindling fish catches and absence of enterprise and resulted in large scale emigration from the islands. Daily-wagers, who depended on finding work as agricultural labour, are the worst hit. Vast stretches of croplands have been rendered infertile after they remained...

The Indian Electricity Act, 2003, initially envisaged that the appropriate governments shall endeavour to supply electricity to all areas including villages and hamlets (Section 6), thus placing the responsibility for ensuring rural electricity supply on state governments. The UPA-I government amended this section to read as follows after detailed deliberations internally and with opposition parties: the concerned state government and the central government shall jointly endeavour to provide access to...

Kerala Food and Civil Supplies Minister C. Divakaran has come out strongly against the suggestion of the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) that the Union government withdraw from grain procurement, storage and distribution under the Public Distribution System (PDS) and outsource these to private operators. FICCI makes the suggestion in a study report, which was released a few days ago. In a statement here on Monday, Mr. Divakaran...

In the least remarked upon move by the government to take on the development challenge in left-wing extremist (LWE) areas, Sudha Pillai was elevated to member-secretary of the Planning Commission on the eve of her retirement from the IAS. A topper in her batch, Sudha was initially posted to her home state of Punjab and then moved to Kerala after her marriage to her batchmate, present home secretary Gopal Pillai....