-The Economic Times Three weeks ago, when the Supreme Court reopened the iron-ore mining door some more in Karnataka, miners in Orissa breathed a Rs 50,000 crore sigh of relief. Also in the dock for some offences of a similar nature, Orissa's iron-ore miners, who produce a third of this mineral that is critical to steel, had been dreading their fate, which lay in the hands of a Central government panel. The...

-PTI   The Supreme Court today set aside the Orissa High Court order which had quashed state government's petition to allot iron ore licence to South Korean steel major Posco in Khandadhar hills in Sundergarh district for a multi-crore steel plant. A bench headed by Justice R M Lodha asked the Centre to consider all the objections raised by various parties pertaining to the mega steel plant and take a decision. The court was...

-PTI The CBI has registered five cases in connection with illegal iron ore export scam worth Rs. 2500 crore and carried out searches at 17 locations, including in the premises of associates of jailed mining baron G Janardhan Reddy, on Saturday. Acting on the orders of Supreme Court which asked the agency to probe the scam, the agency registered five cases and a preliminary enquiry against firms and exporters allegedly related...

-The Hindu Left parties for invoking Revenue Recovery Act against Rakshana Steels ‘owned' by YSR's kin With the State government cancelling the Bayyaram iron ore mining lease earlier granted to Rakshana Steels, a company allegedly belonging to former Chief Minister Y. S. Rajasekhara Reddy's kin, the demand for recovery of the lost mineral wealth has gained momentum. An enormous extent of over 1.41 lakh acres of iron-rich areas spread across Bayyaram, Garla and...

-The Business Standard The Western Ghats need local environmental governance What sets the report of the Western Ghats Ecology Expert Panel, headed by Professor Madhav Gadgil, apart from most other reports delivered by such government-appointed committees is that it does not view environmental factors in isolation from development imperatives. Nevertheless, its recommendations pay careful attention to the need for protection and preservation of the biological wealth of one of the world’s hot...