The Environment Ministry's clearance of projects such as Posco, Jaitapur and Lavasa will cause havoc in our gravely endangered environment. EVEN the worst pessimist could not have imagined that the January 31 order of the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) approving the South Korean-origin company Posco's steel project in Orissa would be as bad as it actually is. Construction of the Rs.54,000-crore steel plant, its captive power unit and private...

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's observation that enforcement of environmental regulatory standards should not lead to a throwback to the days of the licence-permit raj strikes a jarring note in an era of enlightened, science-based conservation. By projecting regulation as a threat to economic development, he has brought needless pressure to bear on the nascent efforts of Minister Jairam Ramesh to bring accountability and transparency to the Ministry of Environment and...

To its credit, the ministry under Jairam Ramesh is no longer the money-making racket it once was. But its activism often resembles regulatory overreach The decision by the Union ministry of environment and forests (MoEF) to give a conditional green signal to the $12 billion Posco steel project in Orissa is exquisitely timed. It will hopefully send out a strong signal that India continues to be open for business and environmental...

India's environment ministry has given conditional approval to South Korean company Posco's plan to build a steel plant in the eastern state of Orissa. The ministry has also cleared the plant's captive port and power plant if certain conditions are met. The $12bn plant is India's largest foreign investment project. Last year, a government panel said that Environmental Clearances for the plant be scrapped. Critics say the project will exhaust iron deposits in...

Clearing a protracted uncertainty over India’s largest-ever foreign direct investment, the Union Environment Ministry today gave its approval to South Korean steel major POSCO’s proposed iron and steel plant in Orissa. In an order today, the Ministry gave environmental clearance for the construction of a 12-million tonne per annum capacity iron and steel plant (4 million tonnes in first phase) and a captive power plant at Jagatsinghpur district of Orissa. It also...