-The Economic Times This year's frail monsoon has depleted Indian reservoirs to alarming levels last seen during the devastating drought of 2009, threatening even winter-sown crops and making the country vulnerable to drinking water scarcity by February as India's grossly inadequate storage capacity magnifies the impact of weak rainfall. The situation is precarious because the monsoon has delivered normal rainfall to only one-third of the country. The total deficit so far this...

Supreme Court wants hazardous waste rules aligned with Basel Convention THE Supreme Court has directed the Centre to ban the import of hazardous waste. While hearing a 17-year-old case, the court also asked the government to amend the existing laws pertaining to toxic waste so that they comply with the Basel Convention, an international treaty that prohibits transboundary movement of toxic waste. India ratified the Convention in 1992. The court gave the...

-The Hindu In the summer of 2011, production at Maruti Suzuki’s Manesar plant ground to a halt, as workers agitated to set up a union independent of the Maruti Udyog Kamdar Union that represented workers at the company’s plant at Gurgaon. The strikes and lockouts eventually dragged on till the fall, and cost the company approximately $500 million in lost production. On Wednesday, nine months after the company finally agreed to recognise...

-The Indian Express A public hearing for environmental clearance to the proposed Gorakhpur nuclear Power Plant in Fatehabad district of Haryana came to an abrupt end Tuesday when members of the Opposition INLD led by Abhay Singh Chautala stormed the venue to protest acquisition of land for the plant. Kuldeep Bishnoi-led members of the Haryana Janhit Congress also reached the venue in support of farmers and activists opposed to the project for...

-The Times of India CHENNAI: Where will the nuclear waste from the Kudankulam nuclear Power Plant be kept and what are the Centre's plans to process the spent fuel to ensure that it does not damage the environment? This is what the Madras high court, hearing a batch of public interest petitions on the nuclear plant, wants to know from the Centre. But in the absence of the additional solicitor-general (ASG) of...