Harvard and other major American universities are working through British hedge funds and European financial speculators to buy or lease vast areas of African farmland in deals, some of which may force many thousands of people off their land, according to a new study. Researchers say foreign investors are profiting from "land grabs" that often fail to deliver the promised benefits of jobs and economic development, and can lead to environmental...

-The Hindu   Almost five months since having declared that Lavasa's hill city project near Pune violated the Environment Protection Act, the Union Environment Ministry has finally told the Maharashtra government to take “necessary action” against the company. In a letter to the State government on Friday, the Ministry said Lavasa had started development and construction work on 681 hectares of land without obtaining the necessary prior environmental clearance. It asked the Maharashtra...

-Hueiyen News Service   Members of Parliament from North Eastern States including three MPs from Manipur Rishang Keishing, Dr.Th Meinya and Thangso Baite demanded strengthening of the Vigilance and Monitoring Committee (VMC)s, which conduct social audit on the implementation of NREGA in the districts, with powers to the local MPs so that they could play an effective role in the implementation, monitoring and vigilance of the flagship programmes related to rural...

The impending BPL Census exercise will not help the poor; on the contrary, it will further deny them a fair share in national resources. The BPL, or Below Poverty Line, Census 2011 for the rural areas will start in select States this month. In a country such as India with vast numbers of the poor, counting the poor often becomes an exercise in undercounting and dividing them, to suit the wholly...

‘Till they stop murdering cows, corruption will not end,’ said Dolath Prachapati of Deshram Memorial Gau Seva Trust at Rajghat on Wednesday. While India Against Corruption and other social groups of the kind were an integral part of the mela, calling for the removal of corruption, a host of other groups descended on Rajghat with views of their own. Though united in a common grouse — the eviction of Baba Ramdev...