As a country grappling with political and infrastructural problems, there are very few issues that do not evoke extreme, often diametrically opposite, reactions in India. Population control Bills, vaccination policy, farmer income initiatives, river water sharing mechanisms or surrogacy laws—there is no dearth of topics that have triggered controversy, and …
The draft Land Acquisition and Rehabilitation and Resettlement Bill, which was introduced in the Lok Sabha on September 7, 2011 is one of the most important legislations waiting for Parliamentary approval. In its present form, the bill is a major improvement over the archaic 1894 land law that has contributed …
As a parliamentarian, you are in a position to muster the political will necessary to overcome the inadequacies of the present legal framework, and ensure land to all. This policy brief has been written with the aim of familiarizing you with the problems of the landless and the controversies, gaps …
The rapid escalation of the Anna Hazare campaign, aided by embracing the media as allies, compromised its political character in numerous ways. Political participation as a critique of the status quo has to exist both inside and outside the media spectacle. Visibility can be experienced as fulfilling, but when the …
Manohar Parrikar: "There is nothing imaginary reported." THE leaked report of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of the Goa Assembly has sought an inquiry into the various aspects of illegal mining in the State. Excerpts from an interview with its Chairman and Goa's Leader of the Opposition, Manohar Parrikar: The …
Rising food prices contribute to food insecurity, which is a clear and serious threat to human security. Interest in food security as a catalyst for political instability and conflict has grown rapidly since 2007–2008, when food protests and riots broke out in 48 countries as a result of record world …
Two years after the Copenhagen summit, the real world is moving away from a safe and equitable climate future faster than ever. Political leaders are busy fighting the global financial crisis. But the lack of public interest and disengagement of relevant actors in the UN climate negotiations (UNFCCC) has – …
Kyrgyzstan is outdoing neighbouring Kazakhstan in linguistic nationalism. Candidates who want to contest the forthcoming presidential elections will have to pass a test of their ability to speak Kyrgyz. Speaking Kyrgyz has been a prerequisite for those seeking the highest office since independence from the former Soviet Union in the …
This study examines the validity of the democracy advantage thesis with reference to India’s states and shows that the impact of democracy on health, in terms of infant mortality rates, is mixed – good to moderate in a number of states but poor in most of the populous states. It …
The revelations of the Karnataka Lokayukta report are symptomatic of a larger story that goes beyond corruption in high places. There has been a neglect of state institutions and decisions by the executive are taken not under consultation with the assembly but as decreed by a new religious math-temple-resort complex …
Arguing that the initial years of the Tamil Nadu Slum Clearance Board were dominated by the priorities of the then ruling party, the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, whose government created it in 1971, this paper points out that shelter policies in the state had a formal orientation away from eviction and …
Hidden behind city branding exercises through large projects are acts of land capture and slum demolitions by a predatory local state and crony capitalism. In the policy arena, meanwhile, the urban, and particularly the metropolitan story has been one of deliberate confusion, and fragmentation of policy and implementation. The promise …
India has played a key role in drawing up the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control that was initiated by the World Health Organisation and the country has ratified it. Ironically, the government’s Indian Tobacco Board is expected to promote Indian varieties of tobacco and the development of the tobacco industry. …
Tribals continue to be at the highest risk of eviction as their regions have the largest number of pending development programmes. And tbey suffer the most even when it comes to land-to-land compensation package. But the new land acquisition bill won’t bring relief to tribals says Richard Mohapatra.
With a growing betel vine sector as well as thriving paddy cultivation and fishing, it is no wonder that villagers in Odisha’s Jagatsinghpur district have resisted the state government’s forceful acquisition of land for the POSCO project. Political parties of all shades as well as the intelligentsia are increasingly coming …
Sparring Points Besides Lokpal Bill, politicians have sparred with civil society on four key pieces of legislation RTI Act: Various arms of government first block it, now place conditions designed to strangle transparency Right to Food: The Planning Commission differs with activists on what percentage of poor should be covered …
The links between digital technologies and politics, especially in the light of the recent West Asian-North African uprisings, have been well-established. But there is a pervasive belief that the technologies of computing, in themselves, are apolitical. There are two warring groups when it comes to debates around political participation and …
On May 30, as the joint drafting committee of the Lokpal Bill met for the fifth time in the conference room of the ministry of finance in North Block, trouble was already brewing. In the last four meetings, the contentious issues had been put on the backburner and the government’s …
