-The Business Standard NHAI approves Rs 6,000 cr of premium deferment for 9 projects, on basis of March guidelines In a major relief to road developers, the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) has approved deferment of premium worth Rs 6,000 crore for nine projects, including those of Larsen & Toubro and Reliance Infrastructure. The board of NHAI met on Friday and gave a final approval to the nine applications, said a senior...

-Down to Earth   India needs second-generation reforms in environmental governance to protect environment and community rights and reduce transaction costs for industry After more than two years of flip-flops by the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF), the Supreme Court (SC) gave a deadline of April 30, this year to the ministry to start the process of setting up a national environmental regulator under the Environment (Protection) Act, 1986, with offices...

-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...

-The Hindu   The project has been started in Edaiyapatti panchayat in Pudukottai Pudukottai district is one of the driest regions in Tamil Nadu. The major crops under tank fed and open well irrigation system in this region in Tamil Nadu are paddy, millets, black gram and groundnut. Pulses like green, black and red gram are generally grown as a rainfed crops especially during summer. But the harvested pulses do not fetch a good...

-The Business Standard   Policy must target faster growth in labour-intensive sectors It was reported on Wednesday that a sample of large manufacturing companies saw their workforce grow at an average rate of almost three per cent every year over the past decade. Putting aside technical niceties such as the representativeness of the sample, to the extent that the companies covered are mostly market leaders in their respective sectors, this statistic is very...