Front Page

• States want freedom to frame their own land acquisition laws: The Land Acquisition Bill has been held up in committee in the Lok Sabha for a long time, amid differences in the way the ruling govt and the opposition want to go about obtaining consent from landowners. Now, the states want the freedom to implement their own land acquisition laws (so that the Opposition-ruled states can implement it their own way), and the govt seems to be caving in to their demands in order to finally pass the law.

• SC refuses to lift stay on States’ power to release lifers: Various state governments want the permission to be able to release life convicts who have completed 20 years in prison. The Supreme Court had issued an order last year disabling the states from doing so. Now, it is hearing a case as to whether this order should be taken back.

Opinion/Editorial

• A pernicious law: The main motive of the Centre in defending defamation as a criminal offence seems to be to retain a law that it can use to stifle criticism. Many international bodies have called upon nations to abolish criminal defamation, recognising that it intimidates citizens and dissuades them from exposing wrongdoing. And, many nations have also done so.

• Reality check on air quality: In addition to dust, gaseous pollutants can be harmful too (if present in large quantities). The govt has started setting up an index for various cities (the National Air Quality Index) to determine the levels of pollution, and the types of contributors to the pollution.

• Showing spine at the WTO negotiations: The Doha Development Agenda is the current trade-negotiation round of the World Trade Organization. Its objective is to lower trade barriers around the world, and thus facilitate increased global trade. Since 2008, negotiations have stalled over a range of major issues, the most important of which is agriculture. The developed nations want all nations to open up their agriculture sector by making their entire markets accessible to overseas products, and to remove subsidies they provide to their own exports. The developing countries object to this because most of their people are dependent on agriculture, and taking these steps will affect a huge chunk of their population. We (India) have almost always been blamed for the negotiations not being successful: our adamant attitude towards protecting our agriculture (taking care of our agriculture is necessary to ensure food security for all Indians). So, now with the timeframe for the Bali programme of November 2014 about to expire, we should have a mechanism in place so that we are not blamed for unsuccessful negotiations.

• Too poor to qualify for loans: A look into why banks refuse to grant loans to the absolutely poor. Only the last paragraph (“Complicated reasons”) is important.

• Explaining Islamic extremism: Although it is generally believed that Islamic extremism has been propounded by religion, but actually, ethnicity, misgovernment, power vacuums etc are also sometimes largely responsible for rise of extremism as well.

National

• Ottappalam to have India’s first defence industrial park:  The Union government’s Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion has approved a proposal from the Kerala Industrial Infrastructure Development Corporation to set up the country’s first defence industrial park at Ottappalam, Kerala. It is aimed at attracting component manufacturers in the defence industry.

• Review drug pricing policy: The Supreme Court on Wednesday directed the government to have a re-look at the drug pricing policy to help make life-saving medicines affordable for the common man. Expect more developments to some out on this critical issues.

Economy/Business

• RBI sets up panel on financial inclusion: The RBI is coming out with a medium term five-year “measurable action plan” for financial inclusion in the country, and is going to establish a panel for suggesting a plan.

• On recovery path: India’s commercial real estate sector is continuing to see a good off-take of office space. An improved market sentiment saw a pick-up in demand in the second quarter of calendar 2015. This translates into a 70 per cent growth over the first quarter of 2015.