-The Indian Express The fact that the urgently needed land acquisition bill is up for debate again within the UPA is symptomatic of why this government stumbles on its economic agenda more often than not. Even as Aadhaar spread of glow of success across the government, doubts have surfaced about the present shape of the land acquisition bill. The Union cabinet had recently the cleared the bill, which says that an...

-The Hindustan Times Even after more than two decades of India's Look East policy, a UN study has put Mumbai and Delhi much below Asian cities such as Bangkok, Hanoi, Beijing, Jakarta or Manila in terms of prosperity. The United Nations Human Settlements Programme has described the two Indian cities as "moderately prosperous". The new city prosperity index, released on Wednesday, has tracked each on the basis of its performance on five key...

-The Times of India India's two top metros, Mumbai and Delhi, still lack what it takes to be world class cities. In a United Nations report on world's cities, India's financial capital ranked 52 among 95 cities while the political capital came in 58th. The State of World's Cities report released by UN Habitat on Wednesday, ranked cities on five parameters of "prosperity". While Shanghai, Beijing and Bangkok were all ranked higher...

-The Hindustan Times The big difference within the Cabinet over the land acquisition bill revolves around the role of the state. Since land is to be acquired for infrastructure projects - India is relying on the private sector to come up with half the $1 trillion it will need to build ports, highways and power plants in the next five years - positions on either side of the debate are deeply...

-The Hindu The Finance Ministry proposal to create a National Investment Board with extraordinary authority to supersede individual ministries and decide the fate of expensive infrastructure projects is a retrograde measure that strikes at the root of democratic governance. The basic tenets of all law-making include public participation, Equity and justice, more so when it comes to the environment and welfare. India’s laws on protection of the environment, forests, wildlife and...