In three districts of Haryana, they have been agitating against the land acquisition policy of the State government. WHEN farmers of western Uttar Pradesh took to the streets protesting against the acquisition of their lands and demanding a just compensation package from the State government, the central leadership of the Congress was quick to cite the example of Haryana, where, according to United Progressive Alliance chairperson Sonia Gandhi, the best policies...

Now that it’s Millennium Development Goal (MDG) week, expect a host of studies/ articles/ commentaries around how India has failed to meet the important MDGs, on how parts of India are worse than sub-Saharan Africa or Bangladesh when it comes to nutrition, and so on. The UN set the ball rolling when it said that “with just five years to the 2015 deadline for achieving the MDGs, the country as a...

With more than 400 million Indians going to bed hungry each day, food security has become a crucial issue. On June 4 last year, the president made an announcement: “My government proposes to enact a new law — the National Food Security Act — that will provide statutory basis for a framework which assures food security for all. Every family below the poverty line in rural as well as urban...

Farmers have a reason to cheer because the cabinet on Tuesday gave nod to the developed land compensation scheme of Karnataka Industrial Area Development Board (KIADB). The scheme will do away with giving cash as compensation to land losers. Instead, they will get a whopping 9,583 sqft of developed land per every acre of land acquired by the KIADB. The compensation deal has been brought on par with the BDA...

Human Rights Watch, a leading rights group, has said the latest UN maternal mortality estimates contradict the claim made by New Delhi that it is 'on track' in meeting goals for reducing maternal mortality. An assessment by the World Health Organisation (WHO) and other UN agencies found that though India is 'making progress' in declining maternal mortality, it is not 'on track' in meeting its UN Millennium Development Goals (MDG). The...