-The Indian Express The victim in the Suryanelli rape case tells her story—a nightmare that lasted 40 days and the trauma that stayed with her every day for the past 17 years She is the ‘Suryanelli girl’. “But that’s not my name.” It’s not. It’s the name of the village in Kerala’s Idukki district where she lived a 16-year-old’s life—happy, innocent, smiling easily. She doesn’t smile easily anymore, but then, a lot...

-The Hindu "The main aim of collective farming is to discourage migration from villages and to provide food security to the families" Nearly 200 landless women and widows in eight districts of the State are working under the umbrella of Tamil Nadu Women’s Collective network to do farming and allied activities for the last three years. Interestingly, when vast tracts of lands are being sold off to commercial realtors in the name of...

-Economic and Political Weekly The recent debate on the acceptability of foreign direct investment in the retail sector in India has been mostly political. It is necessary to look into the pros and cons of FDI in retail from a purely economic point of view. This article identifi es the safeguards that should be undertaken before allowing giant multinationals to function in the country. Abhirup Sarkar (abhirup@isical.ac.in) is with the Indian Statistical...

-Frontline The Land Acquisition, Resettlement and Rehabilitation Bill is an attempt to circumvent the hurdles before acquisition, such as rehabilitation of land losers, without much increasing the cost of land. THE preamble to the draft Land Acquisition, Resettlement and Rehabilitation (LARR) Bill is very noble; it talks about a “humane, informed, consultative and transparent process for land acquisition for industrialisation, development of essential infrastructural facilities and urbanisation with the least disturbance...

-Oxfam Blog As Oxfam’s two week online debate on the future of agriculture gets under way, John Ambler of Oxfam America imagines how it could all turn out right in the end. It is now 2050.  Globally, we are 9 billion strong.  Only 20% of us are directly involved in agriculture, and poor country economies have diversified.  Yet we all have enough food.  Technological innovation has played its part, but increased production...