-International Rivers With an enduring drought ravaging many parts of the country, last month the Prime Minister waxed eloquent on the need to safeguard water during his monthly radio monologue. He raised some valid points on cropping patterns, frugal water use, collection and storage traditions etc., but he was conspicuously silent on the need to protect wetLands. Perhaps it’s no coincidence then that the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change recently...

-Business Standard Large green patches, apart from recorded forests, to get protection. Clarity to help industry In a move that is expected to have far-reaching consequences for protection of forests while ensuring ease of doing business for mining sector, realty sector and industry, the Union environment ministry has defined what constitutes a forest under the Forest Conservation Act 1980 (FCA). The legal definition, pending since 2006, will help in identifying areas where development...

-The Hindu By asking five prominent private hospitals in the national capital to deposit nearly Rs.600 crore to compensate for their failure to treat poor patients, the Delhi government has drawn attention to the social obligation of healthcare providers in the corporate sector as well as the need for timely enforcement of applicable regulations. According to the Kejriwal government, trusts and registered societies to which public Land was allotted to establish...

-The Indian Express According to a survey conducted by the Registrar General of India, Punjab is a vegetarian state and Telengana has the highest population of non-vegetarians in the country. A recently-released survey conducted by the Registrar General of India (RGI) in 2014 busts so many myths about the vegetarian and non-vegetarian divide in the country. A big surprise lies in the fact that the Land of butter chicken is predominantly vegetarian. There...

Although public goods are meant for everyone to enable living life with human dignity, certain groups are systematically deprived to access them, says a new report from the Centre for Equity Studies -- a NGO based in Delhi. Put differently, not all sections of the society are able to access or enjoy public goods and services on an equal footing, despite social justice being one of the key provisions of...