India has rejected controversial plans by mining group Vedanta to extract bauxite in the eastern state of Orissa. The project had breached environmental protection acts and raised concerns for the rights of local tribes, Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh said. Vedanta's other ventures in Orissa were being investigated separately, he said. The company has yet to comment on the decision. It says it will bring jobs to the area - tribespeople say the plans...

The working group on wages, constituted under the auspices of the Central Employment Guarantee Council (CEGC) that governs the functioning of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGA), in a report, has expressed concern over what it described as a crisis of the wage policy. The report, which will be taken up for consideration at a CEGC meeting on Friday, points to the depreciating wages of the MGNREGA workers,...

In a significant ruling, the Supreme Court has held that there is no legal sanctity attached to verdicts of village panchayats, including khaps, that touch personal lives of couples, even if the community accepts such decisions. Handing out this ruling in a case where a village panchayat in Uttar Pradesh had granted divorce to an Army man from his teacher wife, a Bench comprising Justices P Sathasivam and B S...

The Ministry of Environment and Forest’s decision to stall the Vedanta project in Orissa must be understood. The ‘story’ is about a powerful company breaking the law. But it is equally about a development puzzle in which the richest lands of India are where the poorest people subsist. The N.C. Saxena committee has indicted the mining conglomerate on three counts of breaking the environmental laws. One, it took over and...

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...