Carbon Copy A freshly passed amendment to the Forest Conservation Act has created a stir among ecologists, parliamentarians and stakeholders. With several contentious provisions, the amendment reveals an afforestation push where rights and justice take a backseat to commercial interests. This week, amidst a raucous monsoon session, the Indian Parliament saw the passage of several consequential pieces of legislation in quick succession. Among them was the contentious amendment to the Forest Conservation...

The Mrinalini Mukherjee Foundation and People's Archive of Rural India invite proposals for the MMF-PARI fellowships 2023-24.  Number of fellowships: Four Grant amount: Rs. 2 Lakh per fellowship Focus: Arts and Crafts from rural India Duration: One Year Deadline for application: July 31, 2023 Special Focus for 2023-24: Stories from Meghalaya, Nagaland, Manipur, Sikkim, Arunachal Pradesh, Tripura, West Bengal, Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand. Eligibility: Indian citizens who currently live and work in India...

KEY TRENDS   • Oxfam India's 2023 India Supplement report on poverty and inequality in India reveals that the gap between the rich and the poor is widening. Following the pandemic in 2019, the bottom 50 per cent of the population have continued to see their wealth chipped away. By 2020, their income share was estimated to have fallen to only 13 per cent of the national income and have less than 3...

The Hindu Businessline The average days of employment per household under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) in FY23 are likely to be lower than in the last two fiscal years. This is according to the analysis of the data the Ministry of Rural Development put out. Data until March 6 show that the average days of employment under the Act was 45 in FY23. An extrapolation of the...

-The Hindu While the State Information Commission of T.N. furnished only 14% of the information sought, Maharashtra’s SIC was second-worst, sharing 23% of the information The State Information Commission of Tamil Nadu has been the worst performing as far as responsiveness under the RTI Act is concerned, furnishing only 14% of the information sought. Maharashtra was second-worst, sharing 23% of the information asked for, according to a report card on the performance...