-IPS News Calls are mounting for the world’s big fishing powers to stop subsidising international fleets that use destructive methods like bottom trawling in foreign coastal waters, drastically reducing the catch of local artisanal fishers who use nets and fishing lines. Such subsidies total 27 billion dollars a year, with nearly two-thirds coming from China, Taiwan and Korea along with Europe, Japan and the United States, according to a University of British...

-The Business Standard The consequences of unplanned growth in Haryana real estate One of the positive consequences of the recent focus on the dealings between companies owned by Robert Vadra and the real estate giant DLF is that the unregulated nature of the Haryana land market has become a topic of discussion. Mr Vadra’s companies’ purchases of additional land and apartments were funded from the windfall gains that accrued after a 3.5...

-The Hindu Robert Vadra may be the most talked about property developer in Haryana but the emergence of links between the man who sold Sonia Gandhi’s son-in-law his first plot of land and Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda has shone a spotlight on the crucial role played by the Congress-run government in turning realty in the State into a business worth thousands of crores of rupees. Records of all licences granted...

-The Economic Times A ministerial panel working on changes to the Land Acquisition Bill has restored a provision that entails stiffer consent requirements for land acquisition for private companies and extending the legislation to all unfinished acquisitions from the day it becomes effective, clauses that are unlikely to make the bill popular with industry. The two clauses are among some 25 changes that have been made to the bill by the group...

-The Hindu Highlighting the possible disastrous consequences of field trials of Genetically Modified (GM) crops, an expert committee has recommended to the Centre to implement a 10-year moratorium on such trials on Bt. Transgenics in all food crops. In its interim report submitted to the Supreme Court, the Technical Expert Committee (TEC) said: “Based on current overall status of food safety evaluation of Bt. Transgenics, including the data on Bt. Cotton and...