-The Hindu     Some changes were ordered on the direct instructions of the Prime Minister The Prime Minister's office has repeatedly ordered and orchestrated dilution of environment and forest clearances in order to fast-pace industrial projects, documents with The Hindu show. In a series of orders and missives sent to the Union Environment and Forests Ministry over 2012-2013, the PMO instructed that regulations and norms had to be diluted or done away with. These...

-The Hindu In the case of technologies with benefits and risks, it is important to have regulatory mechanisms which can help analyse them in an impartial manner It is 61 years since the beginning of new genetics based on the discovery of the double helix structure of the DNA molecule. It is also 31 years since the production of transgenic plants. The first patent for a living organism went to Dr. Anand...

-The Business Standard It is an inconvenient truth that the poorest people in India live in the country's richest Forests. The management of this green wealth has not brought any benefits to the locals Forests have been blacked out in the economic assessment of the country. The Economic Survey does not even list forestry as a sector, for which accounts are prepared. Instead, it is lumped together with agriculture and fisheries. In...

-Press Information Bureau (Ministry of Tribal Affairs) Government has disposed of 31, 06,690 claims by the end of Dec-2013 out of 36,54,420 claims filed under Scheduled Tribes and other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act -2006, commonly known as Forest Rights Act (FRA). This is 85.01% of the total claims filed under the Act. Out of the claims disposed off, 14,18,078 titles (13,95,647 individual titles and 22,431...

-DNA Maharashtra: To stop the destruction of Forests and increase its green cover to 33% as laid down in the national policy, the state Forests department has launched a campaign to rope in villagers to voluntarily enable regeneration of Forests. It has distributed subsidised LPG cylinders and grants for biogas plants and stall fed and high value milch animals (as against scrub fed cattle) to around 40,000 families living on the periphery...