-Hindustan Times It has also exempted projects with a proposed capacity expansion up to 40% from the requirement of public consultations, with certain riders. In a move that could turn out to be a bonanza for the mining and infrastructure sectors, the environment ministry is considering a number of relaxations in the environment impact assessment (EIA) process that is carried out for development projects, including mining, before they are given the go-ahead. In...

-The Hindu Business Line A dispersed pattern of urbanisation leads to sprawl with higher motorisation and pollution. A new urban vision is needed India’s demographic dividend cannot be realised if young entrants to the labour force as well as potential migrants from agriculture do not gain new livelihoods. Hastening of the structural transformation brings with it three mega-challenges for policy-makers: employment of migrants; growing urbanisation; and ensuring better education and vocational training...

-The Hindu With a new investigation of Delhi tap water showing that it is not safe to drink, the Centre has announced plans to test the quality of piped drinking water in the states and release Swachh Pani rankings early next month. It is also trying to build a consensus to make quality standards for tap water a mandatory requirement. A team from the Bureau of Indian Standards has been sent to...

-Hindustan Times The society runs 268 social welfare schools providing free education, food and clothes to nearly 1.5 lakh children from Class 5 to under-graduate courses. Hyderabad: The success story of residential schools being run for students belonging to marginalised sections by the Telangana government has been chosen as a case study for the prestigious Harvard University in the United States of America. A communication to this effect from Harvard University was received...

-The Hindu The campaign to end open defecation can succeed only if it takes communities with it India’s declaration on the 150th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi that its rural areas are now open defecation-free will be acknowledged around the world as a milestone in its developmental journey. Cleanliness and sanitation were central to Gandhi’s concerns for his vast number of impoverished countrymen, and should ideally have been pursued zealously by governments...