Cancel Jindal project seeking to 'dispossess' people from forest land: Odisha govt told

By A Representative
The civil rights group, Indian Community Activists Network (ICAN), commenting on the “barbaric” police action on the night of December 3 against the people of Dhinkia village, Jagatsinghpur district, Odisha, has said that the attack took place on people who were “peacefully protesting against the proposed project of JSW Utkal Steel Limited by forcefully acquiring their land.”
In a statement, it said, “Even as Odisha was bracing for the fury of Cyclone Jawad and people were being evacuated to shelters, the police attacked the village, attempted to arrest a leader of the protest, Debendra Swain, and injured four village residents who resisted them.”
According to ICAN, “This is an area where people’s resistance was successful against the State Government’s attempt to grab land for the project of the South Korean steel company POSCO. Now, in the name of development, the Biju Janata Dal government of Odisha is attempting a land grab on behalf of the Indian corporate Jindal, dispossessing people and depriving them of their livelihoods from betel, prawn and fruit cultivation.”
Stating that this area has forests on revenue land, on which, according to the Forest Rights Act, 2006, ICAN said, “The local people can have individual, community and community forest resource management rights under the aegis of their Gram Sabhas. Instead of decentralised, community-led development based on local natural resource-based livelihoods, the State government is seeking to violently impose a model of corporate-led development that will destroy natural resources and the livelihoods of local communities who manage these resources.”
Putting forth a series of demands, it said, the injured “must be provided medical treatment and compensation by the government”, action must be taken against the police personnel “involved in this grave violation of human rights”, the Forest Rights Act must be “implemented and management rights over the local natural resources be vested in the Gram Sabhas.”, and the “proposed project of Jindals in the area should be cancelled.”

Comments

Beyond India-China borders: Economic links expand, political gaps persist

By Bhabani Shankar Nayak* Despite growing trade between India and China, a persistent trust deficit continues to shape their bilateral relationship. Expanding economic engagement has not fully resolved political differences, many of which stem from historical legacies as well as contemporary geopolitical concerns. Border disputes—often traced to colonial-era arrangements—remain a significant obstacle to deeper cooperation, while differing strategic alignments in global affairs add further complexity.

GreenTech Summit claims NCR as key green building hub, without pan-India comparison

By A Representative The Indian Green Building Council (IGBC), under the Confederation of Indian Industry, held its GreenTech Summit 2026 in New Delhi, where industry representatives, policymakers and sustainability professionals discussed the adoption of climate technologies in India’s built environment.

Buddhist shrines were 'massively destroyed' by Brahmanical rulers: Historian DN Jha

Nalanda mahavihara By Rajiv Shah Prominent historian DN Jha, an expert in India's ancient and medieval past, in his new book , "Against the Grain: Notes on Identity, Intolerance and History", in a sharp critique of "Hindutva ideologues", who look at the ancient period of Indian history as "a golden age marked by social harmony, devoid of any religious violence", has said, "Demolition and desecration of rival religious establishments, and the appropriation of their idols, was not uncommon in India before the advent of Islam".

Swami Vivekananda's views on caste and sexuality were 'painfully' regressive

By Bhaskar Sur* Swami Vivekananda now belongs more to the modern Hindu mythology than reality. It makes a daunting job to discover the real human being who knew unemployment, humiliation of losing a teaching job for 'incompetence', longed in vain for the bliss of a happy conjugal life only to suffer the consequent frustration.

Gujarat cadre to HDFC: When bureaucratic style hits corporate walls

By Rajiv Shah I was a little amused by the abrupt March 17, 2026 resignation of Atanu Chakraborty —a Gujarat cadre IAS officer of the 1985 batch who retired from the government in 2020—as chairman of HDFC Bank . Much of what may have led to his decision to quit this ostensibly high post—actually a non-executive, part-time role—is by now well known. I followed most of it online with considerable interest, partly because I had interacted with him umpteen times during my stint as The Times of India correspondent in Gandhinagar from 1997 to 2012.

Operation Epic Fury: Making America great at the world’s expense?

By N.S. Venkataraman* The decades-long enmity between Iran and Israel is well-documented, but historically, their direct confrontations have been brief, constrained by the logistical and economic limitations of sustained warfare. The current conflict in the Middle East, however, marks a radical and dangerous departure from this pattern.

India has been getting its economic growth wrong for two decades, say top economists

By Jag Jivan* India's official GDP figures have misrepresented the trajectory of the world's fifth-largest economy for the better part of two decades, according to a major new working paper published by the Peterson Institute for International Economics (PIIE). It finds that India overstated annual growth by up to two percentage points after 2011 — and understated it during the boom years of the 2000s.

Beyond the election manifesto: Why climate is now a kitchen table issue

By Vikas Meshram* March has long been a month of gentle transition, the period when winter softly retreats and a mild warmth signals nature’s renewal. Yet, in recent years, this dependable rhythm has been disrupted. This year, since the beginning of March, temperatures across vast swathes of the country have shattered previous records, soaring to between 35 and 40 degrees Celsius in some regions. This is not a mere fluctuation in the weather; it is a serious and alarming indicator of climate change .

Jerusalem's Al Aqsa mosque under siege: A test of Muslim solidarity and Palestine’s future

By Syed Ali Mujtaba* In the cacophony of Israel’s and the United States’ attack on Iran, one piece of news has been buried under the debris of war: Israel has closed the Al Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem to Palestinian worshippers during the holy month of Ramadan. The closure, announced as indefinite, affects the third most revered mosque in the Islamic world.

Search This Blog