-The Economic Times A presidential pardon can be a fraught proposition with the waiting time for death row convicts ranging from three years to 20 years. Gurmeet Singh from Pipariya village in Uttar Pradesh has been on death row for the last 20 years after being convicted for the murder of 13 family members. Twenty-six years since that dark night when he committed the crime, Gurmeet continues to wait for a decision...

-The Hindu A controversial Bill on land acquisition and the compensation and rehabilitation of those whose land is sought to be acquired ran into opposition in the Cabinet on Tuesday, resulting in referral to a Group of Ministers (GoM). Last week, the Cabinet deferred discussion on the newly renamed Right to Fair Compensation, Resettlement, Rehabilitation and Transparency in Land Acquisition Bill, 2012, which was scheduled to be introduced in Parliament in the...

-The Hindu Activists of several rights groups held a protest here on Tuesday calling for mining group Vedanta Resources, an FTSE 100 company, to be struck off from the London Stock Exchange because of its controversial trade practices and human rights record. Carrying banners and raising slogans against its policies, the protesters gathered outside the venue of the company’s annual general meeting in central London and booed its shareholders as they arrived. Senior...

-The Hindu The response to my article by Mr. Jairam Ramesh, Union Minister for Rural Development, and his colleagues is a welcome move towards a public debate which we have suggested, time and again, should be held in every State with all people’s organisations. I would like to briefly reply to some points in the Minister’s response: His argument that land is finite cannot be used to justify forcible acquisition. The Bill...

-The Hindu Press for universal public distribution system Right to Food Campaign—a conglomeration of civil society groups — on Tuesday held a day-long protest at Jantar Mantar here, raising seven questions with MPs on the proposed National Food Security Bill, particularly in relation to people going hungry when the country has surplus food stocks. Rejecting the proposed amendments to the Bill that might reduce beneficiaries and entitlements under the Public Distribution System (PDS),...