World Bank arm finances polluting steel mill in Jharkhand As the train slowly approaches Jamshedpur town in Jharkhand, the sky begins to turn reddish. It is because of the thick red dust emanating from an industrial unit, surrounded by heaps of industrial solid waste comprising unburnt coal char and flyash. The unit is a medium-scale iron and steel mill belonging to conglomerate Usha Martin. Spread over 120 hectares, the mill became operational...

At a time when coal and gas shortages have crippled operations at most of India’s thermal stations, a boost in nuclear fuel is set to take atomic power generation to a seven-year record next fiscal. With supplies from a new uranium mine and processing facility at Tummalapalle in Andhra Pradesh set to commence later this year, the capacity factor of the 20 operational nuclear reactors, adding up to an installed capacity...

Facing criticism over project delays, the government has decided to get cracking and set up a dedicated forum to remove bottlenecks such as coal linkages and environmental and defence clearances that hold up projects.  Top government officials told TOI that following the meeting of the Prime Minister's Council on Trade & Industry last month, the department of industrial policy and promotion has been asked to identify projects and remove bottlenecks in...

The Jharkhand government, which is sitting on a pile of MoUs worth over Rs 3 lakh crore, is planning to take legal action against rouge investors who have signed deals with the state and used allocated resources for profit without setting up their promised projects. Chief minister Arjun Munda has directed chief secretary S.K. Chaudhary to create a dossier on the status of all MoUs signed by the state government since...

Not only are the Forest Rights Act and the Panchayats Extension to Scheduled Areas Act routinely violated in Chhattisgarh, the adivasis are also short-changed on legislative representation and reservations in government jobs. As the state cedes land to capital while reducing the adivasis to an ornamental presence, there is increasing assertion of adivasi identity, born out of class predicaments and experiences of displacement as much as notions of indigeneity. Supriya Sharma...