Two pieces of legislation, which will impact millions of people displaced or threatened with displacement in the name of development, will soon come up for discussion in the monsoon session of

The Planning Commission wants to douse this 'spreading bushfire of rural discontent' -Neha Sakhuja and Savvy Soumya Mishra Land alienation, poverty amongst scheduled tribes and dalits and lack of access to basic forest resources have contributed to the growth of naxalism, says the Planning Commission. Its report, Development challenges in extremist affected areas, indicts Salwa Judum in Chhattisgarh. The report also critiques SEZs and the complete failure of instruments like the Panchayat (Extension to Scheduled Areas) Act, 1996 and the Forest (Conservation) Act, 1980.

it was the biggest feature of the union budget, and was played to the maximum effect. Waiver of small and marginal farmers' loans amounting to Rs 60,000 crore triggered a virtual stampede among

the need for a national policy on the voluntary sector has been debated in public circles for close to 20 years. The matter seemed to have been sealed with the Union cabinet approving a policy on May

Hope floated in drought-hit Mastapur village when people heard of the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (nrega) in 2006. Residents of this village in Madhya Pradesh's Tikamgarh district thought

criticism against the World Bank (wb) has just become strident. At a time when India has become the biggest recipient of wb loans, a people's tribunal in Delhi has accused the bank of trying to