-The Hindu "Doing away with Social Impact Assessment for irrigation projects not acceptable" The National Alliance of People's Movements (NAPM) on Wednesday hit out at the United Progressive Alliance and the National Democratic Alliance charging them with "colluding" to dilute some of the progressive provisions of the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Bill, 2013. Alleging a "quid pro quo" between the UPA and the NDA for...

One landmark law, the Right to Information Act, has helped over a thousand adivasis in north Maharashtra in getting closer to their rights under another landmark law &NDAsh; the Forest Rights Act. The latter was legislated in 2006 giving forest dwelling and other adivasi communities individual and community rights to lands they had traditionally cultivated and occupied. But communities in rural India have faced an uphill battle in getting the...

The poor man’s rich grain is getting richer &NDAsh; a new study published in the Journal of Nutrition shows that a variety of new pearl millet (more commonly known as bajra), which was conventionally bred to be 10% richer in iron helped iron-deficient children under the age of 3 years, to absorb enough of this crucial mineral to meet their physiological requirements. (See links below for full text and a...

-FeministsIndia.com In the last six months or so the small community of feminist scholars cum activists has been hit by major losses: in February Lotika Sarkar who was among the signatories protesting the Mathura judgment that initiated a new and hugely important phase of the women’s movement passed away; at the end of May Vina Mazumdar who spearheaded the parallel women’s studies movement also passed away. But at least we had...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: The UPA government unveiled a Rs 40-crore Bharat Nirman campaign on Wednesday which showcases policy initiatives like the direct transfer scheme to intended beneficiaries, Aadhar, land acquisition, food security, women's empowerment and RTI. Describing the "Glimpses of India Story-II'' as a small step to showcase a "silent revolution of empowerment of people'', the I&B minister Manish Tewari dismissed NDA's India Shining campaign as "imaginary.'' Asked about the...