-Down to Earth   Reason: Development projects and encroachments   In the past three decades, the Maharashtra state has lost a whopping 1,610 sq km of forests, says the annual administrative report of the Maharashtra forest department. Most of this loss, says the report, is due to either Development projects or encroachment.   According to the report, the forest area in the state totalled 62,971 sq km in 1984-85, which included 42,610 sq km of reserve...

-Live Mint   Prakash Javadekar's environment ministry proposes reduction in parameters defining forests as inviolate New Delhi: On a day it took the environment approval process online, the new government proposed diluting the norms for allowing industrial units in forest areas, moving to clear a logjam in project mandates that industry groups allege has contributed to declining economic growth. Not only will it make the process of environment clearances easier, the norms, once changed,...

-Down to Earth   New minister, Prakash Javadekar, says India will present its case on climate change forcefully at international forums The Union Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change (name changed by the new government) will now accept the online applications for environment clearances for the Development projects. Prakash Javadekar, the new environment minister, launched the system for online applications for environment clearances after he took charge of the ministry on May...

-The Pioneer   Bhubaneswar: Home is an integral part of life and determinant of standard of living and progress of society. Rural Odisha witnesses a very poor standard of habitation and lack of proper housing for lakhs of poor people who are dreaming of a house of their own to live with dignity. Socio-cultural barriers, landlessness and lack of credit for housing are some of the major reasons which deprive rural poor of...

The Centre for the Study of Developing Societies, also called the CSDS or informally, just the Centre, is a premier institute of India in the social sciences and humanities. The Centre provides a unique institutional space which seeks to nurture intellectual interests outside the entrenched boundaries of academic disciplines. This simultaneously gives the Centre a sense of intimacy with and distance from universities. Therefore, the Centre has deliberately chosen not...