-The Hindustan Times India's ailing economy has found a new scapegoat - environment and forests. For most things that go wrong these days, from power shortage to slow growth, the blame is tossed at the door of the ministry of environment and forests (MoEF), the paradigm being that forests, wildlife and green laws are hurdles to development. So much so, that a Group of Ministers established to 'rationalise' coal mining in forests...

-DNA Amid the controversy over allocation of resources for biodiversity by developed and developing nations, India has decided to allocate $50 million (about Rs 275 crore) towards biodiversity conservation. In addition, the country would also allocate similar amount to help other developing nations conserve biodiversity. Addressing the representatives of about 190 countries at the opening plenary of the high-level segment of the 11th Conference of Parties (COP-11) on the Convention on Biological...

-Outlook Patna: Airing scepticism over the inter-linking of rivers serving the desired purpose, social activist Medha Patkar today charged Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar with embarking on the project in the state without consulting people. "I am apprehensive about inter-linking of rivers serving the desired purpose and if it is so then chronic flood caused by Koshi river should have stopped after construction of dams," she said at the ninth biennial national...

-The Hindu Proposed NIB would be illegal, she says Minister of State for Environment and Forests Jayanthi Natarajan has expressed “very serious concern” at the setting up of a National Investment Board to fast-track clearances of major infrastructure projects, saying the “concept is unacceptable,” documents exclusively obtained by The Hindu reveal. In a five-page letter sent to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on October 9, Ms. Natarajan said the proposal would upturn established procedures...

-Mainstream Weekly Intense and motivated propaganda, powerful national and international diplomatic pressure, verging on pure and simple arms-twisting of the kind the Third World has been facing for decades by means of the active role of the econo-mic hit-men in the policy establishments, huge cash-back lobbying, both in India and abroad, blunt attempts to bamboozle the persons holding key positions in India’s policy establishment through a combination of hissing and kissing...