-The Economic Times NEW DELHI: CBI director Ranjit Sinha has said infrastructure building through the public-private partnership model could lead to a spike in corruption cases as the potentially lucrative contracts may encourage collusion between big firms and state officials. "This route is full of pitfalls and it has opportunities for corrupt activities with big scope for collusion among promoters of consortiums to whom such projects are awarded and corrupt public servants...

-Outlook Jamshedpur: Tata Steel Group Executive Director Koushik Chatterjee today said Rehabilitation and Resettlement (R and R) provision in the recently passed Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act would ensure that state governments work for the benefit of the society. The old Act was more than 100 years old and needed a revamp for the benefit of the society as well as for the industry executing big projects, Chatterjee told reporters here. The...

-The Times of India KOLKATA: The West Bengal Mineral Development & Trading Corporation Ltd will acquire around 2,800 hectares of land for three coal blocks in Burdwan, one of the largest Land Acquisitions by any state-run agency since Trinamool Congress came to power in Bengal in May 2011. The corporation-which has already been pulled up by the coal ministry for delay in the project's execution-needs to take 1186.83 hectares for the Ichhapur...

-The Times of India SHIMLA: Nand Lal Sharma was a Class VIII student when 71 bighas of land owned by his family in Bilaspur district of Himachal Pradesh was acquired for the construction of Bhakra dam. Today, Nand Lal, now in his 70s, is heading a movement to ensure the proper settlement of Bhakra dam oustees since the majority of people who gave their land for the "new temple of resurgent...

-The Hindustan Times Mumbai: Indian companies have acquired land more than nine times the size of Delhi on foreign shores, as cultivable land at home is lost to urbanisation, industry and infrastructure projects. Land Matrix, a global land monitoring initiative that tracks land dealings worldwide, placed India among the top 10 countries that have acquired large tracts of land abroad, primarily for agriculture, in Africa and Asia. The country ranks eighth,...