-Hindustan Times Mumbai: Alleging that the Centre was diluting environment protection laws to allow construction in ecologically important areas, citizens and environment groups have filed 3,971 objections against the draft environment impact assessment (EIA) notification, 2020 proposed by the Union environment ministry. On March 12, the Union ministry of environment, forests and climate change (MoEFCC) presented the new rules that will replace the 2006 EIA notification, which is presently in force, in...

-Business Standard Agriculture is a state subject and the Central government has limited powers to ensure implementation of the guidelines Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday called upon state governments to quickly make necessary changes to rules governing their mandis so that direct marketing of farm produce can be done without crowding the markets. Addressing the chief ministers during a four-hour long meeting to discuss the modalities for extending the lockdown, Modi said...

-The Hindu/ PTI Some of the significant additions in the new rules include provision of mandatory police verification of staff in schools and care homes, procedures to report sexual abuse material (pornography), imparting age-appropriate child rights education among others. The Union government has notified the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Rules, 2020 which enables implementation of recent amendments to the Act under which provisions of punishment for child abuse has been...

-The Indian Express The application questions the reasonableness and objectivity of the criterion of extending the benefits of the CAA to Buddhists, Sikhs, Hindus, Jains, Parsis and Christians from Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan alone. The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights “intends to file” an Intervention Application in the Supreme Court of India, “seeking to intervene in Writ Petition (Civil) No. 1474 of 2019 and praying that she be allowed to...

-Down to Earth This is because agriculture in India is largely dependent on chemicals including pesticides and their usage has a huge impact on the health of humans, animals, bio-diversity and the environment Pesticides are regulated in India through the Insecticides Act, 1968 and Insecticides Rules, 1971. The experience in administering this Act over the last five decades has exposed certain gaps which spurred the need to propose a new law. The Pesticide...