The Environment and Forests Ministry was in news throughout 2010 -- be it for Vedanta Resources, Posco and Lavasa -- or for Jairam Ramesh's aggressive green activism. While the ministry rejected the green signal to Vedanta for its $1.7 billion project to mine bauxite in the Niyamgiri Hills of Orissa noting that the company violated the environment and forests rules, it put the $12 billion project by South Korean steelmaker Posco...

The Supreme Court today stayed a Delhi High Court order that had refused to quash a criminal case slapped against political commentator Ashish Nandy for an article on the Gujarat riots. It also issued notices to the Gujarat government on an appeal filed by Nandy against the high court order that dismissed his plea for quashing the case registered against. The high court had asked Nandy to defend himself in a lower...

The Supreme Court on Tuesday stayed the proceedings in a criminal case registered against political analyst Ashish Nandy for an article published in a national newspaper on the 2002 Gujarat communal riots. A Bench of Justices Altamas Kabir and Cyric Joseph stayed the proceedings on an appeal filed by Mr. Nandy against a Delhi High Court order dated September 1, 2010, declining to quash the case registered against him under Sections...

The implementation of a landmark forest rights Act, which in 2006 overturned several colonial-era laws in India that denied forest dwellers entitlements to land and other resources, has been “terrible”, an official panel has said.   The national committee, established in April last year by the tribal affairs and environment and forests ministries, visited 17 states in seven months and released its report on Monday. “Our site visits show the implementation has been...

Fog not only delays trains and flights, causes road accidents and makes the winter season depressing but also causes the prices of eggs to rise. The recent increase in egg prices is attributed to fog and the prices are likely to increase again as soon as the visibility drops. To add to that, onions and tomatoes are also becoming more expensive. According to Shabir Ahmed, secretary, Poultry Federation of India, eggs...