-Business Standard Amendments skip key controversial issues The National Democratic Alliance (NDA) has made nine amendments to its land Bill, tabled in Parliament on Monday. Most of these were cosmetic in nature, leaving the key elements of the original promulgation intact - the lack of need for consent and social impact assessment while acquiring land for private projects; public-private partnerships and government acquisitions. Rural Development Minister Chaudhary Birender Singh did move two amendments...

-The Times of India The Narendra Modi government appears to have continued where the Congress regime left off as far as welfare of Dalits and adivasis is concerned. Plan allocation for schemes under various ministries and departments that serve dalits and adivasis remains much below the targeted levels in the Union Budget for 2015-16. Total Plan allocation in the recently presented Union Budget is Rs 4.65 lakh crore. To ensure that Plan funds...

-Centre for Budget and Governance Accountability (CBGA) Press Release   New Delhi: The direction indicated by the Finance Minister's Budget Speech in general and that of the taxation policies in particular indicate a quantum leap being taken towards market fundamentalism. In the absence of any increase in the overall spending capacity of the government (Centre and States combined), the steps for fiscal decentralization (from Centre to States) have been constrained, implying only...

-Economic and Political Weekly   The stage is all set for the resumption of iron ore mining in Goa after it was suspended in the state in 2012, to curb its indiscriminate and illegal mining. The Goa government's decision to renew the mining leases comes at a time when the economics of iron ore mining have changed and environmental concerns have gained more prominence. Pamela D'Mello (dmello.pamela@gmail.com) is a Goa-based journalist. The state government...

-IANS Washington: India had the highest level of social hostilities involving religion in 2013, while China had the highest level of government restrictions on religious beliefs and practices, according to a new study. Worldwide, social hostilities involving religion declined somewhat in 2013 after reaching a six-year peak the previous year, according to the Pew Research Center's latest annual study on global restrictions on religion released here Thursday. But roughly a quarter of the...