India's environment ministry on Tuesday rejected a plan by India-focused mining group Vedanta Resources Plc to mine bauxite in Orissa, dealing a blow to the company already struggling with regulatory issues in India. The decision pertains to one mining site in eastern Orissa state where it runs an alumina refinery on bauxite imported from elsewhere in India. The decision was announced in a government statement. The company is facing regulatory...

Sunita Laxman Jadhav is a door-to-door saleswoman who sells waiting. She sweeps along muddy village lanes in her nurse’s white sari, calling on newly married couples with an unblushing proposition: Wait two years before getting pregnant, and the government will thank you. It also will pay you. “I want to tell you about our honeymoon package,” began Ms. Jadhav, an auxiliary nurse, during a recent house call on a new bride in...

Facing heat from the Centre over mining projects in his State, Orissa Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik is expected to raise concerns over recommendations of a government panel on the matter with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Monday. Mr. Patnaik said he would apprise Dr. Singh on the adverse effects the recommendations would have on investments in the State. “I shall be meeting the Prime Minister and take up matters regarding the Polavaram...

Janardhana Reddy insists he is not a king. No, no, no, he protested, as a servant trotted across the courtyard to deliver a cup of cooled water. Men with machine guns stood outside. An architect waited to discuss the new mansion, while another man hovered nearby, sitting in the grass. “He’s the state minister of health,” Mr. Reddy said of the man in the grass, who stood up, made a little...

Orissa will move the Supreme Court against a high court order disapproving its grant of permission to South Korean steel major POSCO to prospect for iron ore in Sundergarh district, an official said on Saturday. A bench of the Orissa High Court July 14 set aside the permission granted to POSCO last year for prospecting iron ore in over 2,500 hectares in the Khandadhar hills in Sundergarh. "We have decided to appeal...