-Outlook Letters for deallocation of 13 private coal blocks to their owners are likely to be sent soon after the Law Ministry gives its go-ahead, Coal Minister Sriprakash Jaiswal said today. These blocks were advised to be cancelled by the Inter-ministerial Group (IMG) as companies failed to develop them within the stipulated time. "We are waiting to get the Law Ministry approval for the deallocation letters for 13 blocks. We are expecting it...

-MoneyLife.in If you were wondering why most of the recent major cases of corruption have not been exposed by opposition parties, especially the BJP, now you have the answer: they are all in it together. I am ready for any inquiry,” repeated Nitin Gadkari on every television channel where he brazenly defended the dubious shell companies and land allotment that propelled the growth of his ballooning ‘social entrepreneurship’. The irony is that Nitin...

-Down to Earth 'Will the Indian government abandon mining projects to protect us?' ask residents of Singrauli who face displacement because of Mahan coal project Ever since India assumed presidency of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) on October 8, it has never missed a chance to reiterate its commitment to conserving biodiversity and protecting indigenous people and their traditional knowledge. Indian officials attending the ongoing CoP 11 meet at Hyderabad have...

-The Hindustan Times India's ailing economy has found a new scapegoat - environment and forests. For most things that go wrong these days, from power shortage to slow growth, the blame is tossed at the door of the ministry of environment and forests (MoEF), the paradigm being that forests, wildlife and green laws are hurdles to development. So much so, that a Group of Ministers established to 'rationalise' coal mining in forests...

-The Times of India Keen to snap out of a policy coma and rev up an anaemic economy, the government is looking to slash " green tape" by making lease extensions simpler, amending restrictions on work beginning on projects where forest land is involved and easing expansion norms for mines. Sifting through highly polarizing arguments, new initiatives aim to reduce points of contention that have often locked ministers in charge of economic...