-The Indian Express Mining in India has come a long way in the last 50 years or so. From the Industrial Policy Resolution of 1957 to the National Mineral Policy (NMP) of 1993, and now to the NMP of 2008, it has shown a progressive shift towards bringing the private sector into exploration, mining and downstream value addition. However, the regulatory systems perhaps never managed to keep pace with developments on...

-The Telegraph All environment-related roadblocks relating to government projects will be handled by the Prime Minister’s Office, finance minister P. Chidambaram has told a review meeting of infrastructure projects. His remark suggested the government is in a hurry to complete all infrastructure projects in time for the elections. Environment minister Jayanthi Natarajan and her team appeared to be everyone’s favourite punching bag at the meeting, attended by all core infrastructure ministries, including those...

-The Hindustan Times Environment ministry will set up an expert committee to find out the mining companies, including in coal sector, who have failed to start mining despite getting environment clearances and to strengthen the ministry's monitoring process. The ministry has given environment clearance to 530 million tonnes to coal but operations to mine only 200 million has started. Many companies have failed to start mining despite getting the clearance years ago. There is...

-The Telegraph The Supreme Court today said it couldn’t be a coincidence that only politicians’ friends, relatives and associates were allotted coal blocks and asked the government to explain why it couldn’t implement a 2004 policy of bidding. “You (the Centre) may have a well-laid-out policy, but is it a coincidence that all the allottees are only politicians’ family, friends and associates?” a bench of Justices R.M. Lodha and Anil R. Dave...

-The Times of India The inter-ministerial group (IMG) reviewing coal block allocations that have been questioned by the federal auditor for being allotted arbitrarily could not complete its proceedings and is expected to meet again on Friday. The IMG meeting could not complete its case-by-case assessment of 29 blocks allotted to private firms with the response of the private players being considered against the terms they are alleged to have violated. Sources said...