-The Telegraph New Delhi: India's plans to expand solar energy 30-fold to 100,000MW in seven years could create more than a million new jobs but demand chunks of land cumulatively larger than the metro areas of Calcutta or Delhi, an environment think-tank has said. An analysis by the Delhi-based Council on Energy Environment and Water has suggested that the plan to raise installed solar energy capacity from the current 3,000MW to 100,000MW...

-The Indian Express The Centre is reportedly considering decontrol of urea over a period of three years, at the end of which retail prices would be totally market-determined, with farmers getting a fixed per-bag subsidy to be credited directly to their bank accounts. If this happens, it will probably be the most politically challenging economic reform the Narendra Modi government undertakes. Given the crash in global oil prices, decontrol of diesel...

-IPS News NAGAPATNAM, India - Standing amidst his lush green paddy fields in Nagapatnam, a coastal district in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu, a farmer named Ramajayam remembers how a single wave changed his entire life. The simple farmer was one of thousands whose agricultural lands were destroyed by the 2004 Asian tsunami, as massive volumes of saltwater and metre-high piles of sea slush inundated these fertile fields in the...

-Business Standard The ordinance has returned near absolute power of discretion in land acquisition, except in tribal areas, into the hands of the bureaucracy yet again Even after the National Democratic Alliance's land ordinance, governments will still need the consent of tribal gram sabhas in all Schedule V and VI areas of the country before acquiring land for themselves or for public-private projects. While the land ordinance has done away with the need...

-The Hindu Says the government is resorting to falsehood to rule country Kolkata / New Delhi: The BMS was among the central unions that led 3.6-lakh workers of Coal India Ltd. (CIL) on a five-day strike beginning Tuesday. Earlier in November, the BMS stayed away from a strike called on November 24 by other central trade unions to oppose the coal ordinance. "Four months ago, we had asked Coal Minister Piyush Goyal to...