-Hindustan Times The Union environment ministry has come out with a consultation paper on amending the Forest Conservation Act 1980 to bring significant changes to forest governance in India including facilitating private plantations for harvesting and exploration or extraction of oil and natural gas deep beneath forest land by drilling holes from outside the forest areas. Here are the highlights of the environment ministry’s proposal: Forests on private land Until December 1996, provisions of...

-The Hindu Centre committed to turning the north-east into oil palm hub, says Agriculture Minister Guwahati: Arunachal Pradesh has finalised the National Mission on Edible Oils-Oil Palm (NMEO-OP) and will go “full swing” in implementing it across 1.33 lakh hectares soon, Chief Minister Pema Khandu has said. Speaking at the ‘Business Summit for North Eastern States’ on the NMEO-OP in Guwahati on Tuesday, Mr. Khandu said Arunachal Pradesh is geographically the largest State...

-Livemint.com Real estate must contribute more to our economy and that calls for sectoral reforms and cheap homes Over the past few weeks, the financial and economic world has been worried about the likely collapse of Evergrande, the world’s most-indebted real estate company. At the same time, the bigger issue of China’s dependence for growth on its real-estate sector remains. In a working paper titled, Peak China Housing, Kenneth S. Rogoff and Yuanchen...

-Hindustan Times The country has to develop and adopt more efficient crop production techniques along with favourable marketing policies and price support mechanism. The lack of an assured market is the main reason for the poor availability of pulses India is the largest producer of pulses. Since the population has low-income levels and people are largely vegetarian, pulses provide good quality protein, and they contribute significantly to the nutritional security of the...

-Hindustan Times Around 250 residents of Chhattisgarh’s Hasdeo Arand started a march from Surguja district to Raipur, around 330 kilometres away, on Monday demanding cancellation of all coal mining projects in their region.  Environmentalists and activists are also taking part in the march. “The representatives of all 30 villages of Hasdeo Arand ... are part of this padayatra (foot march) demanding justice from state and Central government by cancelling all coal mining projects...