A Bill that seeks to amend the existing law governing exploration and production of oil and gas as well as delink petroleum operations from mining operations was passed by the Lok Sabha on Wednesday (March 12, 2025). The Oilfields (Regulation and Development) Amendment Bill, 2024, is aimed at boosting investment …
Vedanta and POSCO may find going tough in Orissa in a move likely to benefit tribal people and forest communities, the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests (moef) has made the law tougher for industries and government agencies that want to divert forestland for industrial and infrastructure projects. On August …
The work of Tarun Bharat Sangh in Rajasthan has received much attention. There is an urgent need though to question development challenges that go overboard in extolling the virtues of greenery without tracing the hands that own the land and harvest the fruits of public money.
This paper documents the Andhra Pradesh experience of institutionalizing social audits into the implementation of the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, and uses it to analyze the social audit process. It draws on empirical work aimed at measuring the effectiveness of social audits conducted in Andhra Pradesh between March and …
This paper documents the Andhra Pradesh experience of institutionalizing social audits into the implementation of the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, and uses it to analyze the social audit process. It draws on empirical work aimed at measuring the effectiveness of social audits conducted in Andhra Pradesh between March and …
In 1993, India introduced quota-based political reservations for women in rural areas with the objective to promote gender equality in human development by making rural service provision and local governance inclusive and responsive to the needs of women. Recent evidence shows that reservation policies for women stimulate the political participation …
Although the Union Finance Minister in his 1999 budget speech declared the 1999-2000 as the year of the Gram Sabha, adequate efforts were not made to enforce the declaration excepting in a few states like West Bengal and Kerala. The culture of not holding GS meetings got wide currency because …
He sits in Vigyan Bhavan in the Ministry of Development of North Eastern Region. The secretary sits in Krishi Bhavan; the additional secretary in Sardar Patel Bhavan and the joint secretary in Samrat Hotel. You could say the Panchayati Raj is homeless without an address in India
The Andhra Pradesh government, quietly and unobtrusively, has achieved something quite remarkable: the conduct of the social audit for the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS) using the RTI Act; and therefore sown the seeds for a non-violent revolution in less than two years.
Land purchase deals amid gunshots in Jharkhand village investigations into the murder of four security guards at a proposed power plant in Jharkhand are revealing uncomfortable truths about industrialization in the state. The company that wants to buy land in Chakla village of Latehar district called the guards martyrs and …
No problems with Goa project, Environment Appellate Authority says THE National Environment Appellate Authority last month dismissed an appeal that had challenged environmental clearance to a high-grade iron ore plant in Sanguem taluka in Goa. In September 2008, Sushant Naik, a Sanguem resident, had filed the appeal and alleged discrepancies …
The present Act and Rules seeks to correct the historical injustice done to Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers, by granting them security of tenure over individual and community holdings, ownership of Minor Forest Produce, Nistar and Grazing Rights and adequate safeguards for their rehabilitation, in cases of their …
The draft Nirmal Gram guidelines by the Department of drinking water supply (DDWS). Details modifications related to the eligibility critieria, application and scrutiny process, usage of incentive, sustainability measures etc. Comments/suggestions on the guidelines can be sent till April 22, 2009. To give a fillip to the Total Sanitation Campaign …
This manual attempts to set out the systems and standard processes that could be followed for decentralised planning. It aims to provide guidance on how the considerable capacities of line departments and experts can from now on, subserve this process of empowered planning by local governance. This manual comprises two …
Once covered with lush teak forests, Pati block in Badwani district of Madhya Pradesh now has a depressing lunar landscape of denuded hills, where only subsistence agriculture is possible. Most rural households there survive on wage labour and seasonal migration. The Jagrut Adivasi Dalit Sangathan (JADS), an unregistered organisation with …
The Scheduled Tribes & Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006 (Act 2 of 2007). Implications for the management of protected areas and wildlife in West Bengal.
After its pioneering efforts in universal literacy, Kerala has scored another first with Cheriyanad gram panchayat in Alappuzha district being declared the country's maiden litigation controlled and legal literate panchayat.
The National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, (NREGA) was enacted with the objective of enhancing livelihood security in rural areas by providing at least 100 days of guaranteed wage employment in a financial year, to every household whose adult members volunteer to do unskilled manual work. The Act initially came into …
This paper examines how political institutions and local power structures interact with and influence local public resource allocation in the Indian state of Karnataka. It use data from 80 village councils and 225 villages to examine how this local political economy influences the allocation of public resources. The empirical strategy …
