Farmers of Chandauli district in Uttar Pradesh, who have been served a notice for acquisition of land for a freight corridor for Mamata Banerjee’s railway ministry, have decided to rope in all those who had backed the Singur agitation for a movement against the project. As a first, the farmers have written to Medha Patkar, the spearhead of the Narmada Bachao Andolan, who is one of the key social activists...

Mamata Banerjee today asserted that land would not be taken forcibly for the dedicated freight corridors and multiple options were on the table to procure plots for other rail projects. “We will not take land forcefully for the dedicated freight corridor. We would negotiate and amicably settle the issue….what (is the problem) if there is a delay of four to six months,” the railway minister said during a debate on demands...

For about a week after the Dubai crisis broke, international financial markets chose to ignore it. Stock-markets climbed, commodity prices rose and the dollar continued to be beaten down. It is not too difficult to explain this initial indifference. For one, the magnitude of the Dubai crisis appeared piffling, at first glance, compared to the “subprime” crisis or the meltdown following “Lehman’s bust”. When global banks had run up losses...

The convulsions that have gripped the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM) — India’s flagship city development programme — with only three years to go for the termination of its assigned lifespan of seven years, is symptomatic of the country’s predilection to put politics above all other issues, including the vital ones. The Mission, aimed at pulling India’s 63 cities out of their dilapidation, which is somewhat reminiscent of...

CITIES MAKE one simple promise to newcomers: Sacrifice yourself to me and your children shall prosper. This promise drew Ahmed Raza, a small-time wrestler from an Uttar Pradesh village and millions like him to the capital of newly-independent India. Raza kept his part of the bargain, yet half a century later, his daughter was pushed out of the city her father helped build, the only home she has known. “I...