The Yamuna may be in spate near Delhi, states like Punjab, Haryana, Gujarat, Kerala and Tamil Nadu may be soaked wet and the Mithi river -- the lifeline of Mumbai -- could be flowing at the brim, but for people in the East and Northeast India the thirst for rain prolongs. They wait for the rain gods to smile upon them. Overall, this is one of the best monsoon India has...

National Advisory Council member and former bureaucrat N C Saxena headed the four member panel which recommended that Orissa Mining Corporation (the company that was to supply bauxite ore to Vedanta’s Lanjigarh plant) not be permitted to mine on Niyamgiri hill. ET spoke to Mr Saxena a few hours after the environment ministry accepted his committee’s recommendations. Excerpts from the interview: What are the implications of today’s decision? Some sections of corporate India feel that laws such as...

National Advisory Council member and former bureaucrat N C Saxena headed the four member panel which recommended that Orissa Mining Corporation (the company that was to supply bauxite ore to Vedanta’s Lanjigarh plant) not be permitted to mine on Niyamgiri hill. ET spoke to Mr Saxena a few hours after the environment ministry accepted his committee’s recommendations. Excerpts from the interview: What are the implications of today’s decision? Some sections...

The Centre’s sunshine law — Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006, — has failed to find favour in Khunti district, the birthplace of tribal icon Birsa Munda. Villagers in the district said the new act is irrelevant as the Chotanagpur Tenancy (CNT) Act, 1908, framed by the British following the Birsa movement, ensures more rights to the tribals than what the new law promises. Little...

Raising doubts on the impartiality of the Saxena-Pandey committee appointed by the Centre, the Orissa government has questioned the authenticity of their findings about violations in the Posco project area. Countering the charge of violation of the Forest Rights Act, the state government has asked the environment ministry to reconsider its “stop work” order. In a letter to the Union environment ministry, the state government has alleged that “the way...