-The Business Standard   The Orissa government may defer its plan to resume land acquisition for South Korean steel company Posco’s $12-billion project near Paradip on May 18, by a week due to non-cooperation of United Action Committee (UAC) members, unavailability of temporary shed for police forces and severe heat wave. Priyabrata Patnaik, managing director of state-owned Industrial Infrastructure Development Corporation and nodal officer for the project, had earlier said the land...

The health of RTI activist Ketan Shah, whose has been on an indefinite fast inside the Valsad Nagarpalika premises for eight days now, worsened on Friday, with doctors starting his treatment on the spot. Shah went on hunger strike after his shop was demolished by the Nagarpalika officials following his allegations against Valsad Nagarpalika president Raju Patel, accusing him of illegal encroachment on government land. Shah had made representations to...

Participants at a United Nations summit today outlined a 10-year plan to support the world’s most vulnerable countries overcome poverty, calling on the private sector to play a greater role in the fight, urging wealthy nations to step up their aid commitments and demanding the elimination of many trade barriers. The Istanbul Programme of Action to spur development and economic growth was made public at the end of the Fourth UN...

Even as Narmada Bachao Andolan leader Medha Patkar on Thursday demanded repeal of the Land Acquisition Act, 1984, the All-India Kisan Sabha urged Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to call a special session of Parliament to discuss the issue. Ms. Patkar, who was arrested at Parsaul village on Thursday and later released, said that instead of an amended Act, there should be a comprehensive Development Planning Act under which development should only...

A day after Congress leader Rahul Gandhi took centre-stage putting his party's weight behind protestors over land acquisition in western Uttar Pradesh, the government on Thursday said it would introduce a new land acquisition bill having provisions for better compensation and rehabilitation measures in the next session of Parliament. "We must have a new land acquisition law. Government has drafted a new act that has provisions for better compensation, rehabilitation and...