-Hindustan Times The Union environment ministry has come out with a consultation paper on amending the Forest Conservation Act 1980 to bring significant changes to forest governance in India including facilitating PRIvate plantations for harvesting and exploration or extraction of oil and natural gas deep beneath forest land by drilling holes from outside the forest areas. Here are the highlights of the environment ministry’s proposal: Forests on PRIvate land Until December 1996, provisions of...

-Hindustan Times The country has to develop and adopt more efficient crop production techniques along with favourable marketing policies and PRIce support mechanism. The lack of an assured market is the main reason for the poor availability of pulses India is the largest producer of pulses. Since the population has low-income levels and people are largely vegetarian, pulses provide good quality protein, and they contribute significantly to the nutritional security of the...

-Hindustan Times Around 250 residents of Chhattisgarh’s Hasdeo Arand started a march from Surguja district to Raipur, around 330 kilometres away, on Monday demanding cancellation of all coal mining projects in their region.  Environmentalists and activists are also taking part in the march. “The representatives of all 30 villages of Hasdeo Arand ... are part of this padayatra (foot march) demanding justice from state and Central government by cancelling all coal mining projects...

-The Telegraph APCR reproduced an account that sheds more on the ugly backdrop to the police firing and atrocity that followed A delegation of rights defenders who visited Assam’s Darrang district, where a day labourer and a child were killed in a land reclamation drive in a minority-dominated settlement last month, has reconstructed a grim picture of the government and PRIvate groups creating a situation that culminated in the police firing. The fact-finding...

-ThePRInt.in From Jayalalithaa to Amarinder Singh, chief ministers throughout the years seem to have ignored the seniority PRInciple in choosing chief secretaries. The position of the chief secretary is arguably the most crucial civil service post in any state. Normally, the senior-most serving Indian Administrative Service officer in the cadre is expected to be posted and officers senior to them, who are on central deputation, can be overlooked. Apart from suitability, the...