Jairam Ramesh, India's environment minister, will make a decision in the next week that could define the future of the country: whether to approve a $12 billion South Korean-owned steel plant, the largest potential foreign direct investment ever on the subcontinent. The plant, proposed by South Korea's Posco, has been in the works for years. It already has been cleared by the environment ministry, which Mr. Ramesh runs, and endorsed by...

The Bombay High Court at Goa on Friday quashed the allotment of land on lease by the State-owned industry promotion body to the promoters of seven Special Economic Zone(SEZ) projects upholding the State Government's power to scrap the SEZ policy and the projects in public interest. A Bench comprising Justice A. S. Oka and Justice F. M. Reis, inter alia ruled that that there was lack of fairness and transparency in...

The two day 43rd Session of the Indian Labour Conference (ILC), the apex national tripartite body that discusses key issues affecting labour and employment and provides policy perspectives and recommendations, concluded in New Delhi today. The Conference was inaugurated by Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh on Tuesday 23rd November 2010. Senior level representatives of the three pillars of the tripartism, Trade Unions, Employers’ Associations and Government, participated in the deliberations...

A fast growing economy is a thirsty economy and India is no exception—with the country’s water supply already under great strain, India must reassess its consumption to meet escalating demands for water to produce food and energy. Business-as-usual water practices cannot remain the same in India as the economy and its demand for freshwater grows over the coming decades. With an astounding 75% of freshwater already used for agriculture in India,...

The unemployment rate in India is estimated at 9.4 percent or 94 persons out of 1000 persons in the labour force for the fixed reference period of financial year 2009-10, according to employment-unemployment survey by the Labour Bureau under the Labour and Employment Ministry. In absolute terms about 40 million persons are found unemployed based on the survey results at overall level of the State/UT’s surveyed. The unemployment rates are estimated at...