-The Indian Express Seeking to give the credit for the fresh and more all-encompassing title of the new Land Acquisition Act to Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi, Union Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh said Sunday it was Gandhi who suggested the title of the Bill. Both Houses of Parliament passed the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition Bill last week. The new Act replaces the over a century old Land...

One landmark law, the Right to Information Act, has helped over a thousand adivasis in north Maharashtra in getting closer to their rights under another landmark law – the Forest Rights Act. The latter was legislated in 2006 giving forest dwelling and other adivasi communities individual and community rights to lands they had traditionally cultivated and occupied. But communities in rural India have faced an uphill battle in getting the...

-The Business Standard The process prescribed in the law is so cumbersome and time consuming that neither industry nor landowner will benefit Fast economic growth in the last two decades has increased demand for land from many sources, such as infrastructure, industry, mining, and urbanisation, including real estate. Even when these activities are funded privately and are driven by profit motive, they serve a social purpose since employment generation per unit of...

-The Telegraph The Centre today sought to allay fears that the proposed land acquisition law would discourage industrialisation and delay projects, saying it had "humane" provisions based on lessons from the Singur agitation. "The fears are largely exaggerated and overblown. Any bill that closes the door on forcible acquisition is also in the interests of the nation," rural development minister Jairam Ramesh said, alluding to concerns expressed by industry bodies over the...

-Economic and Political Weekly The government has notified a Draft Land Reforms Policy which, on paper, has all the requisites of an earnest programme. Yet, the near total failure of earlier efforts at land reforms in India leave little room for hope that something substantial will at last be done to combat landlessness. Harsh Mander (manderharsh@gmail.com) is with the Centre for Equity Studies, New Delhi, and works with survivors of mass violence,...