The finance ministry has asked the telecom department not to entrust state-owned BSNL with the Rs 20,000-crore project to build a nationalbroadband network to take high-speed internet to the hinterlands. It has recommended that a special purpose vehicle (SPV), consisting of many mobile phone companies, be entrusted with implementing this project, while adding that all stakeholders should be chosen through a transparent and competitive bidding process. The telecom department had identified...

An ecological catastrophe is in the making in Orissa where more than six lakh trees are being cut at the POSCO site in Jagatsinghpur district for the south korean steel plant. The farmers in Orissa are protesting against the felling of six lakh trees at the POSCO site. More then 50,000 have already been cut down and nearly six lakh more trees are to go. The district administration is going ahead...

-The Indian Express   The way to Posco project remained blocked with irate villagers of Mathsahi and Balisahi of Nuagaon panchayat opposing work for the fourth day on Wednesday. Incidentally, these two villages are main entry points to Nuagaon and Dhinkia panchayats and the administration had planned to take up work in other hamlets after felling trees here. While the recent face-off between villagers and police turned Posco supporters into antagonists, the...

Bhubaneswar: Orissa’s steel and mines minister Raghunath Mohanty is faced with the most difficult task of his tenure—orchestrating smooth land acquisition for South Korean steel maker Posco, maintaining peace in the villages affected by it and responding to pressure from the Central government that wants to showcase the 12-million-tonne (mt) project as one of the successes of its foreign investment policy. With the environment ministry giving its final clearance for the...

A host of steel-manufacturing units are keen to set up plants in Karnataka, and all want captive mines. SOUTH KOREA'S Posco is not the only steel-maker keen to do business in Karnataka. The State's estimated 9,000 million tonnes of good-quality iron ore reserves, which is the second largest in India, the State government's assurances on a smooth land acquisition process, the availability of water and the promise of speedy regulatory clearances...