-Newsclick.in Release of the draft during a lockdown, which seeks to fundamentally changes India’s environmental regulations, shows BJP government’s utter disdain for public opinion. The Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change (MoEFCC) had released a Draft Notification on Environment Impact Assessment 2020 (EIA Notification 2020) on March 12, 2020, on the eve of the world’s largest nationwide lockdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and had called for responses in the next...

-Newsclick.in The Public Distribution System is an essential social security measure, especially during a crisis like Covid-19, but biometric authentication is a roadblock. Over the past few weeks, the situation for daily wage earners has been particularly dismal. A telephonic survey with over a 100 people in rural areas of six states (Chhattisgarh, Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha and Uttar Pradesh) by Road Scholarz, conducted in two phases (26-31 March and...

-Newsclick.in Several nomadic people usually set out in March on traditional routes, where animals feed on vegetation. Once lockdown is lifted and kharif sowing starts, the animals will be left with nothing to chew on. Pastoral nomads stranded in the lockdown in Rajasthan’s desert region since March 25, are worried about feeding their animals, as once the lockdown lifts, the summer heat would have dried out vegetation on their traditional routes. The seasonal...

Although no journalist was murdered in the country last year as opposed to six such murders in 2018, it would be wrong to say that press freedom has never been violated, says the recently released report by Reporters without Borders (Reporters Sans Frontières - RSF) -- a media watchdog organisation that works for freedom of expression and information. The report says that India's performance in 2020 World Press Freedom Index (WPFI)...

-Newsclick.in The draft notification pushed during the lockdown, in more ways than one, tries to minimise public participation in determining impacts of any particular industrial project on livelihoods and environment. New Delhi: In what could spell catastrophe for the lives and livelihoods of millions of citizens across the country, the Central government has sought to introduce new rules whereby environmental clearances can be granted to industrial projects on a post facto basis....