The Gandhian movement Ekta Parishad plans to organise a march for land rights in October 2012 in India, aiming to gather around 100,000 indigenous people, dalits and poor peasants. Support is shaping up around the world, at events such as an international mobilisation conference in Geneva Sep. 12-13. "In India, a large number of adivasi (indigenous people) are pushed out of their land because of mining, huge dams, wildlife protection, industrialisation...

In a face-off between advertisers and news broadcasters over the issue of the periodicity of reporting television rating points, the former has opposed the broadcasters’ proposal to have TRPs of shows move from a weekly to a monthly format. The News Broadcasters Association (NBA) last week had issued a letter to TAM, the body that measures television viewership in India, asking it to consider the option of reporting TRPs of programmes...

A move to announce the viewer ratings of news channels once a month – rather than the current weekly announcement – has spurred opposition from advertisers as well as some channels. The media research agency which releases the ratings has refused to implement the change until it receives written consent from all stakeholders. The decision to shift from weekly to monthly ratings for all national news and business channels in Hindi...

Team Anna both galvanised people and captivated the news industry, in two closely related but distinct strategies. India is not yet a society where Big Brother is Watching You. However, the mass spectacle of people wearing “I am Anna” topis and T-shirts signals a new phase of politics. If we recall “Anna” means Big Brother, we may wonder if in this case Big Brother is You, Watching. In the second case too,...

-The Telegraph   The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) has slammed the petroleum ministry for failing to take back 25 per cent of the acreage of the KG-D6 oil and gas block off the Andhra coast from Reliance Industries after it reneged on its drilling obligations. The long-awaited report from the CAG based on a detailed performance audit of the country’s hydrocarbon production sharing contracts was tabled in Parliament today. The nation’s auditor surprisingly...