-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,...

-The Times of India   Gopinath Munde's tragic and untimely death is one more desperate wake-up call for road safety in India. For me, the news was particularly distressing as seven months ago, it was on the same road-Aurobindo Marg-that my cycle was hit by a reversing car. I was lucky that Good Samaritans picked me up and took me to the same Jai Prakash Narayan Apex Trauma Center at AIIMS where...

-Live Mint   Despite its importance, reform of India's legal institutions has been seen as a ‘second order' issue India is a young nation long ruled by old laws-its police, for example, are governed by such colonial-era statutes as the Police Act of 1861, which predates independence by nearly a century. And its expanding economy requires forward-looking regulatory mechanisms to foster markets while curbing crony capitalism. India is also a nation that must...

-Outlook   The author of the surprise international bestseller, Capital, in the 21st Century, thinks that abolishing Income Tax is not a good idea Books on economy rarely move beyond the peer group of economists and their academic circle. But those old presumptions are now being put to the test and the rules are being rewritten from the time 42-year old French economist, Thomas Piketty, went viral. The publication of the English edition...

-PTI     Former IB chief Rajiv Mathur on Thursday took over as the new Chief Information Commissioner in the Central Information Commission. He was administered the oath of office by President Pranab Mukherjee at Rashtrapati Bhavan. Mathur, 64, succeeds Sushma Singh, who demitted office on Wednesday, as the sixth chief of the transparency watchdog. His name was recommended by a three-member selection panel headed by outgoing Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.   "My priority would...