-The Hindu MoEF issues fresh guidelines to accelerate environmental appraisal of projects The Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) wants to expedite the environment appraisal of industrial projects. These appraisals, as per norms, are conducted by independent panels of experts that have representatives from the government as well as from outside, trained in matters of ecology, wildlife and habitat preservation. The Expert Appraisal Committees (EACs) opine on whether a proposed project beyond a...

-The Indian Express On Sunday, Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren reacted to the findings by ordering a probe and promising to revamp the verification system. Chief Secretary Sukhdev Singh said verification “has been stopped” till the probe is completed. Ranchi: On October 31, barely 48 hours after The Indian Express told him that official records had listed 180 beneficiaries from his school for the Centre’s pre-Matric scholarship for minority students, the principal...

-The Indian Express Delhi riots: One of the videos purportedly shows groups of policemen carrying arms and batons throwing portions of bricks alongside alleged rioters. The faces of the policemen as well as the rioters are visible. New Delhi: On October 5, the Delhi Government’s Home Department flagged a set of seven videoclips to the Delhi Police that include two of policemen purportedly throwing bricks alongside rioters and egging them on during...

-Down to Earth Union Ministry of Tribal Affairs should create a COVID-19 response cell to monitor issues and provide support, it said The novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) crisis has hit the forest dwellers in India hard: The pandemic has led to a loss of livelihood and employment, caused food insecurity and socio-economic distress for the marginalised forest-dwelling communities, according to a new report. Atrocities and injustices faced by these communities due to forest,...

-PTI/ The Hindu The CAG findings run contrary to Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman’s submissions in Parliament last week that states could not be compensated for revenue shortfall from the Consolidated Fund of India (CFI) relying on an opinion from the Attorney General of India which stated that there was no such provision in the law. The CAG has found that the Union government in the very first two years of the GST...