-The Hindu   A committee comprising representatives of people from different walks of life has been constituted for ensuring the entry of Dalits into the caste Hindu areas in Perali village near here. Members of the committee ensured that the Dalits were permitted to ride their bicycles on the streets dominated by caste Hindus in the village. On Tuesday, a group of Dalits along with their wards rode their bicycles. The committee was constituted...

A Right To Information (RTI) activist has alleged that the assistant public information officer of the Greater Ludhiana Area Development Authority (GLADA), Shiv Gupta had threatened him following which he had to be hospitalised due to high blood pressure. The activist, Arvind Sharma had sought information regarding station leave of officers. Sharma has submitted a complaint in this regard at the Model town police station, but no action has been...

-Outlook   A farmer sitting on a dharna along with other peasants to protest acquisition of land for the proposed nuclear power plant in the district died today at PGIMS, Rohtak. Ishwar Singh Siwach, a Gorakhpur village farmer, was shifted from the Civil Hospital, Fatehabad, to Rohtak last evening in a serious condition, police said. He died this morning, they said. The 60-year-old farmer was taken ill when he was sitting on the dharna...

The global 'farmland grab' in Ethiopia and the rest of Africa has become competitive, with companies from Asia, including India and China, joining it. AN extraordinary new process has been at work in the past few years: the aggressive entry of Indian corporations into the markets for agricultural land in Africa. At one level, this process is simply following the hoary old tradition in global capitalism of firms (often supported...

Anna Hazare's campaign may lead to a new Lokpal Bill, but it has legitimised middle-class vigilantism and other kinds of civil society mobilisation. NOW that Anna Hazare has declared victory, it is time to take stock of one of the most powerful recent mobilisations of people in India, focussed on influencing policy or lawmaking processes. The victory, however, is largely symbolic. The original demand of the movement, carefully built around Hazare's...