-Economic and Political Weekly   Much work remains to be done if the new Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act has to mark a meaningful shift for India's adivasi communities. Chitrangada Choudhury (chitrangada@csds.in) Chitrangada Choudhury (chitrangada@csds.in) is a multimedia journalist and researcher, and currently with the Publics and Policies program at the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies, New Delhi. Among the worst excesses committed in India's six decade-old democracy, the forcible displacment...

-The Hindu Questions over advisability & validity of ordinance to protect convicted lawmakers cited as reasons Five days after Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi publicly censured the government, the Union Cabinet, at a brisk 20-minute meeting on Wednesday evening, decided to withdraw the controversial ordinance on convicted lawmakers, as well as the Bill that sought to amend the Representation of the People Act on which it was based. Union Minister of Information and...

-The Hindu The ordinance seeking to amend the Representation of the People Act interferes with the exercise of judicial power Bill LXII of 2013, namely, The Representation of the People (Second Amendment and Validation) Bill, 2013 is pending before Parliament. I examine here whether the Bill, when passed as an Act or its provisions promulgated as an Ordinance, will be unconstitutional or not. Declared principle The constitutional principle applicable in a situation analogous to...

-The Hindu Direct Benefits Transfer is potentially a game-changer, but with certain pre-requisites: Mihir Shah Planning Commission member, Mihir Shah, speaks to The Hindu about a wide range of issues, including the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) and his contribution to the 12 Five-Year Plan. Excerpts: * The MGNREGA has come under criticism from many quarters, including the CAG. Do you feel this criticism is warranted? How do you...

-The Hindu Former Justice K.S. Puttaswamy, who went to court against the linking of state benefits to the UID scheme, says much money has been wasted on the ‘dangerous' project The Supreme Court order restraining the linking of services and benefits to the 12-digit Aadhaar number has placed in doubt ambitious plans by the Centre and several State governments to make the ‘voluntary' Aadhaar scheme mandatory for access to services and subsidies....