On December 15, the Andhra Pradesh legislative assembly cleared a bill to regulate microfinance institutions (MFIs) in the state. The bill replaces an ordinance issued in October following 54 suicide deaths allegedly due to coercive methods of loan recovery by MFIs (see ‘Death by Default’, Down To Earth, November 30, 2010). The bill mandates MFIs to be registered with the district authority to collect installments at the panchayat office and restricts...

The Gondia police have arrested Sudhir Dhawle (42), Editor of Vidrohi magazine and freelance journalist based in Mumbai, on charges of waging war against the state. He was booked under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act. “The charges are the same as those slapped on [rights activist] Binayak Sen,” Mr. Dhawle's lawyer Surendra Gadling told The Hindu. He claimed that the police took Mr. Dhawle into custody on Sunday night itself from...

The implementation of a landmark forest rights Act, which in 2006 overturned several colonial-era laws in India that denied forest dwellers entitlements to land and other resources, has been “terrible”, an official panel has said.   The national committee, established in April last year by the tribal affairs and environment and forests ministries, visited 17 states in seven months and released its report on Monday. “Our site visits show the implementation has been...

Over two years after the issue rocked the state, Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee today again raised the issue of returning land to “unwilling” Singur farmers. The issue had compelled Ratan Tata to pull out from West Bengal with the ambitious Nano project. Referring to his September 2008 meeting at Raj Bhawan with Mamata Banerjee, the CM said, he is still ready to return 100 acres of land to the unwilling farmers and...

Safai karmacharis are set to end their two-decade-long movement for a life of dignity on a victorious note. DECEMBER 31, 2010. As revellers across the world prepare to celebrate the end of the first decade of the new millennium and the start of a new year, a million women across India will be celebrating not the end of a calendar year but the end of a centuries-old degrading and inhuman...