This is a unique situation. For governments, development authorities, lenders and borrowers alike. On Wednesday, a Supreme Court (SC) Bench headed by Justice GS Singhvi upheld a verdict of the Allahabad High Court that quashed acquisition of 176 hectares of land from farmers in Greater Noida stating that the authorities were “sub-serving” private builders in the name of public interest. Land purchased from the government was always considered ‘clean’. This verdict,...

Despite the much-hyped rural consumption boom and all the social sector programmes of the government, the income inequality between the rural and urban consumer widened to 91% in the first five years of the United Progressive Alliance coming to power in 2004. According to the 66th round of the household consumption expenditure survey released by the National Sample Survey Office (NSSO) on Friday, the per capita expenditure level of the urban...

As we close in on 20 years of Manmohanomics, it's worth remembering one chant the chattering classes uttered, first with pride, later to console themselves. “Whatever you say, we have the most honest man in Dr. Manmohan Singh. And no one can speak a word against him.” It's less heard now — those affections having been transferred to other punters in the honesty sweepstakes. But growing numbers do say this...

A day after the Supreme Court upheld the Allahabad High Court order quashing state acquisition of farm land in Shahberi, farmers of other villages that make Noida Extension announced they too would move court against acquisition of their land by the government. This is likely to put a spanner in the works of major building projects already underway in the area. At a panchayat in Bisrakh village on Thursday, residents of...

  A day after it accused states of running a sinister campaign to "grab" the land of poor farmers, the Supreme Court on Wednesday dealt a big blow to the Mayawati government in Uttar Pradesh by quashing a 2007 notification to acquire 156.3 hectares of land in Greater Noida. A bench of justices GS Singhvi and AK Ganguly also imposed a Rs 10 lakh fine on the Greater Noida Industrial Development Authority...