-PTI New Delhi: Considering the “phenomenal” growth of e-waste in the country, the Centre today notified the revised e-waste management rules 2016 under which improper management of such refuse leading to environment damage will invite financial penalty. While CFL and other mercury lamps have been brought within the ambit of the e-waste management rules 2016, a “Deposit Refund Scheme” has been introduced under which the producer of any computer, mobile phone or...

-The Telegraph Chennai: Hindustan Unilever Ltd (HUL) has agreed to compensate nearly 600 former employees who were exposed to toxic mercury in a thermometer factory that had been relocated from New York to Tamil Nadu by another investor in 1984 following environmental concerns in the US. The thermometer factory is located at Kodaikanal, around 430km from here. The plant was shut down in 2011 after Greenpeace activists found mercury waste in the...

-The Telegraph New Delhi: The Union environment ministry has reclassified industries depending on their pollution potential, ranging from 60 "red" category units prohibited from ecologically fragile and protected areas to 36 "white" industries that will not require any environmental clearance. The list released today after a year-long internal exercise is intended to appropriately reflect the pollution potential of India's diverse industrial units taking into account their emissions, effluents, hazardous wastes and consumption...

-The Times of India BHOPAL: Madhya Pradesh is staring at a drought-like condition for the second consecutive year if revenue department reports from districts are any indication. Revenue data reaching here from various districts hints that dry conditions may bring water scarcity in many parts of the state from April to June this year. As the state is on the verge of another drought, far-flung areas of more than 40 districts have...

-The Indian Express Field reports suggest that the mustard crop — currently about 70-90 days old and at the reproductive (flowering and pod development) stage in most areas — is in good condition. Dry weather combined with unwinter-like temperatures — roughly 5 degrees Celsius above normal levels for this time — may not pose immediate worries to the rabi season crops in the fields now. But the real concern is whether...