The Land Acquistion, Relief and Rehabilitation Bill, 2011, was approved by the Union Cabinet on 5 September 2011. It aims to put in place a transparent and legal framework for land acquisition. According to the proposed Bill, consent of at least 80 per cent of people will be mandatory to acquire land except where it is acquired for a public purpose. The Bill defines public purpose as land use for strategic purposes, infrastructure and industry. The Bill calls for different land acquisition norms for rural and urban areas. Under the new Bill, the states will be free to have their own land acquisition laws. The proposed law seeks to replace the 117-year-old Land Acquisition Bill, 1894 and for the first time integrates both land acquisition and R&R package.

Calcutta judge Soumitra Sen on 1 September 2011 resigned from the position of judge. He submitted his resignation to the President prior to impeachment process scheduled in the Lok Sabha and after the upper House had overwhelmingly voted to declare him guilty of financial misconduct.

A tripartite agreement for Suspension of Operations against ULFA was signed between the Centre, the Assam state government and the outlawed United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA) in New Delhi on 3 September 2011 with the objective of bringing permanent peace in Assam. The Union Government was represented by the Joint Secretary (North-East) of the Home Ministry, Shambhu Singh and the Assam Government by the Home Commissioner Jishnu Barua. Shashdhar Chaudhuri, Chtraban Hazarika and Raju Barua, three key ULFA functionaries, represented the banned outfit. ULFA had earlier agreed to abjure violence and to find a solution to the problems as perceived by the outfit through peaceful negotiations with the Union Government and the Assam Government.

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Two-day conference on climate change in Bonn

Top government, business and civil society leaders from several countries, including India, have formed a unique alliance to deal with climate change. They have launched an ambitious programme to restore 150 million hectares of lost forests and degraded land by 2020. The alliance was formed at the two-day conference on climate change organised jointly by the International Union for Conservation of Nature and the German Ministry for Environment in the city of Bonn. The meet titled 'Bonn Challenge on Forests, Climate Change and Bio-diversity' was aimed at securing a broad support from government, business and civil society leaders for forest conservation efforts and thereby making a contribution to reducing global warming.

Former Afghan President Burhanuddin Rabbani was killed

Former Afghan President Burhanuddin Rabbani was killed by a suicide bomber killed in Kabul on 20 September 2011. As head of Afghanistan's High Peace Council, Rabbani shouldered responsibility to find a political solution to the 10-year war with the Taliban. Rabbani was given the dangerous and difficult job of guiding the negotiations between the government and its opponents, including the Taliban. His death will impact the future of the war in Afghanistan.

Hakkani terror network

The United States said that Hakkani terror network carried out the recent attack on the US Embassy in Kabul with the help of Pakistan's ISI. Haqqani network was also behind the attack against the Inter-Continental Hotel in Kabul on 28 June 2011.

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India and Bangladesh signed a historic protocol on land boundary agreement following the talks between Prime Minister Mahmohan Singh and Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in Dhaka. During the visit of Manmohan Singh to Bangladesh, India and Bangladesh signed the following agreements:

India-Japan global partnership summit 2011 was held in Tokyo, Japan .

India signed DTAA (Double Taxation Avoidance Agreement) with Estonia and forged a pact to work with it in the field of information, communications and technology (ICT). The DTAA and the pact on ICT was signed during the visit of communications and Information Technology Minister Kapil Sibal to Estonia. Kapil signed the DTAA with Estonian Minister of Finance Jurgen Ligi.

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