-The Hindu India’s infrastructure is bursting at the seams, unable to cope with the pressure from the growing economy. Developing the sector will help to create jobs and result in higher economic growth The Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is likely to grow 5.5 per cent and the economic slowdown shows no sign of halting. India’s infrastructure is bursting at the seams, unable to cope with the pressure from the growing economy. Spurring...

The Fifth Schedule of the Constitution, the 73rd amendment and the landmark PESA and Forest Rights Act (FRA) have progressively acknowledged the rights, and special powers of the Gram Sabha in deciding developmental projects as well as playing a role in protecting the ecology and forests. But a clutch of clever exemptions in recent months are ensuring that centralised authorities take away the same powers through the back door, without routing...

-The Times of India There was no let up in bad news for the government on the economic front. Amid the debate over slowing economic growth, data released by the Central Statistics Office (CSO) on Tuesday showed industrial output fell 0.6% in December, posing fresh policy challenges. This is the second successive month of decline for factory growth which has remained anaemic due to a string of factors including high interest rates,...

-The Economic Times The coal ministry, in an affidavit to the Supreme Court, has said that it has the sole legal right to allocate coal blocks even as the state governments own the blocks and eventually grant the mining leases. In response to the query of the apex court, which questioned the ministry's authority in this regard, the coal ministry said that though there was no express statutory provision, a combined reading...

The Ministry of Environment and Forests (MOEF) has been the target of criticism from industry groups to the Prime Minister for allegedly holding up infrastructure and industrial development through its system of green clearances. But a recent analysis of 5 years of decision-making put out by an environmental group suggests why these attacks might be misplaced, given the ease with which every single of 262 proposed hydropower and irrigation projects...