-FirstPost.com One of the fears that has been raised in the aftermath of the government promulgating an ordinance to amend the Land Acquisition Act is that Land will be taken away for other purposes and given that, the amount of Land used for farming will come down dramatically. This is a very specious argument that is being made. Data from World Bank shows that around 60.3 percent of India's Land area is...

The tribal or the Scheduled Tribe communities constitute only 8.6 percent of India's population and yet, they are around 40 percent of those displaced due to ‘development’ projects. In the midst of a raging debate on the new Land Acquisition Ordinance, a new report brings out many such paradoxes of development versus displacement of India’s indigenous or Adivasi people. The report exposes the anomalies of Land alienation, displacement and forced...

-The Hindu For the Land-acquirer, the Land act ordinance tries to lessen the indirect price of acquisition and transaction by diluting requirements for social impact assessments and referenda. For the Land-loser, it not only retains all forms of compensation and rehabilitation, but also grows the number of those eligible for lucrative pay-offs The government of India continues to search for the right way to do Land acquisition. Last week, the Union Finance...

-Business Standard The ordinance has returned near absolute power of discretion in Land acquisition, except in tribal areas, into the hands of the bureaucracy yet again Even after the National Democratic Alliance's Land ordinance, governments will still need the consent of tribal gram sabhas in all Schedule V and VI areas of the country before acquiring Land for themselves or for public-private projects. While the Land ordinance has done away with the need...

-The Hindu Business Line Its bold labour reforms are a trendsetter, lending impetus to the ‘Make in India' initiative With ‘Make in India' taking centrestage in India's plan to position itself on a high growth track, far-reaching reforms in the labour, tax and Land laws hold the key to the government's ambitions. The abundance of workers is undoubtedly India's biggest asset for its emergence as a preferred manufacturing destination. While the Centre has initiated...