Orissa Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik today said the POSCO project, which has been a hanging fire for the last five years, has a potential of earning huge revenue for the Centre as well as the state and will create many employment opportunities for the country. Patnaik also said the implementaion of the Rs 51,000-crore project is also the responsibility of the central government. "It is also the responsibility of the Centre. The...

The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) is distributing wheat seeds that will benefit over half a million farming families, or nearly five million people, whose seed supplies were destroyed during the recent flood disaster. The floods, which began in late July and inundated one fifth of the country, claimed more than 1,800 lives and have affected more than 20 million others. Agriculture is the mainstay for over 80 per cent...

The Rs 51,000-crore Posco steel project in Orissa, that has been delayed for five years, faces the prospect of getting delayed further. The ministry of tribal affairs is now looking at the possibility of whether the South Korean steel project, which also represents the largest foreign direct investment (FDI) in India so far, has actually encroached into the land owned by tribals. The Union ministry of environment and forest (MoEF) has...

Peeved at the appointment of “activists” in the forest panel for clearing Rs 54,000 crore steel project of Posco, Steel Minsiter Virbhadra Singh advised Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh to be “pragmatic.” “The approach has to be pragmatic and not dogmatic. When there is an issue of development some sort of compromises have to be made,” Mr. Singh told PTI, when asked as to what his advice would be for Jairam Ramesh...

When India’s Forest Rights Act was passed in 2006, it was criticized by environmentalists who were concerned that it would undo the country’s wildlife reserves. On the flip side, tribal rights advocates were concerned that the people the law was really meant to help wouldn’t benefit. Since it came into effect in January 2008, India has blocked at least one megaproject – Vedanta’s bauxite mine in Orissa – on the grounds...