-Economic and Political Weekly   Much work remains to be done if the new Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act has to mark a meaningful shift for India's adivasi communities. Chitrangada Choudhury (chitrangada@csds.in) Chitrangada Choudhury (chitrangada@csds.in) is a multimedia journalist and researcher, and currently with the Publics and Policies program at the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies, New Delhi. Among the worst excesses committed in India's six decade-old democracy, the forcible displacment...

-The Times of India Put 50% cap on all reservations Affirmative action can work only in limited doses. It should not be used as a sledgehammer that rules out all other criteria of job selection. The 50% cap on reservations mandated by the Supreme Court earlier should be the absolute upper limit for all categories of reservations. Any relaxation of this upper limit would further dilute meritocracy in public services, impede good...

-The Economic Times NEW DELHI: For the beleaguered UPA government, here are some words of praise. The flagship rural employment guarantee scheme has comes in for praise from the World Bank, five years after it described the programme as "policy barrier" to economic development and poverty alleviation. The World Development Report 2014 has described the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act as a "stellar example of rural development". At the heart...

-The Economic Times MUMBAI: Bank account holders can now send money to any individual through mobile banking by merely entering the recipient's Aadhaar number. National Payments Corporation of India, which launched Aadhaar-based remittances on Wednesday, sees its use in micro-payments such as taxi fares and small purchases. The transfers can be done using the most basic phones through SMS for small amounts or through mobile banking apps for amounts over Rs...

-The Hindu Poverty takes a huge toll on the mind and on this World Mental Health Day, the focus should be on the well-being offered by community-based alternative approaches In recent years, the impact of mental illness on the social and economic health of nations has been well understood, placing mental ill health as one of the leading causes of disability adjusted life years (DALY) worldwide. There has been much focus on...