-The Telegraph New Delhi: India's annual toll of premature deaths from air pollution is likely to rise to 1.7 million over the next two decades despite planned initiatives to lower power sector and transport emissions, says a study that highlights the need for more action. Released today by the Paris-based International Energy Agency (IEA), the study cautions that rising incomes, urbanisation and industrialisation are raising energy consumption in India and worsening air...

-The Indian Express Ministry cites ‘incomplete data’ as primary reason for low placement numbers. “Kaushal Bharat, Kushal Bharat” — it’s with this slogan that the government had launched its ambitious Skill India Mission in July last year, but the transformation from Kaushal to Kushal seems to be faltering at the last mile. While the government claimed to have trained twenty lakh people under its flagship Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana (PMKVY), which works...

-Hindustan Times A week after the ministry of environment and forests (MoEF) put out a document on its website titled ‘National Forest policy, 2016 (Draft): Empowered Communities, Healthy Ecosystems, Happy Nation’, a senior ministry official last week said the document is only a “study” done by Indian Institute of Forest Management (IIFM), Bhopal, and not a draft policy. The preface to the document, however, said it had been prepared “based on...

-PTI Potassium iodate, used as a flour treatment agent in making bread, causes cancer The Centre's ban on the use of potassium bromate as a food additive will reduce risk from cancer-causing chemicals and safeguard public health, the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) said, on Tuesday, and also sought a ban on potassium iodate, another chemical used as a flour treatment agent in making bread. "We are happy to know that the...

-PTI The government approved on Wednesday a Rs 6,000-crore special package for textiles and apparel sector to create one crore new jobs in 3 years, attracting investments of $11 billion and generating $30 billion in exports. The measures approved include additional incentives for duty drawback scheme for garments, flexibility in labour laws to increase productivity as well as tax and production incentives for job creation in garment manufacturing. “Over the last few years, apparel...