-Hindustan Times New Delhi: A total of 8,765 people were arrested across the country for various environment-related offences in 2014, the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) has said in its latest report. The NCRB has added this fresh category in which it has given details of crimes registered under acts like the forest act, wildlife protection act, Environmental (Protection) Act, 1986, Air (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act, 1981, Water (Prevention and...

-The Hindu Business Line Not the RBI, going by the revised priority sector lending norms, which will further reduce credit to the marginalised Prime Minister Narendra Modi has often expressed his sense of anguish at the plight of farmers. In a recent statement in the Lok Sabha, he noted that the agriculture community’s problems were “old, deep-rooted and widespread”, and stated that farmers cannot be left to fend for themselves. Implicit in that...

-The Indian Express Maharashtra’s horticulturists have had a good run since the 1990s when subsidies under the Employment Guarantee Scheme were offered to small and marginal farmers. Mumbai: There was a time when a farmer’s worries peaked once annually over a failed monsoon or a flood. “Now we get strange weather conditions on one day of every month,” grumbles Kiran Wagh, 35, of Tembhe village in Nashik’s Satana Taluka. “Cloudy, overcast, humid...

-Economic and Political Weekly Much has been claimed on behalf of the Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Amendment Act that has been enacted by Parliament, but the legislation has introduced a watered-down version of auctions, has many exceptions to legalise the old first-cum-firstserve approach, and ignores previous Supreme Court rulings on measures to ensure sustainable development. E A S Sarma (eassarma@gmail.com) is a former Union Power Secretary. With a brute majority in...

-Business Standard The authority will have the powers to regulate waste management and conduct studies regarding environment and ecology The National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government has invited consultants to redraw the green laws of the country following up on the T S R Subramanian committee report. The consultants to be hired through a bid will help the government draw up an umbrella environmental law, which will subsume the existing legislations, as recommended...