Posco’s proposed $12 billion steel plant in India is in doubt after a government panel recommended scrapping environment clearances given to the world’s third largest steelmaker. Three of the four members of the panel suggested that approvals should be canceled because of “flaws in the studies, and shortcomings in the clearances granted” to the project in the eastern state of Orissa, Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh told reporters yesterday in New Delhi....

The showpiece proposed iron and steel project in Orissa by South Korean steel major POSCO faces a huge cloud of uncertainty with an expert panel set up by the Environment Ministry alleging violations of environmental laws. Three of its four members today recommended that all initial clearances to the project be cancelled. The lone dissenting voice was that of former Environment Secretary Meena Gupta who argued that there was no need...

Indigenous people are entitled to their own institutions and self-governing structures to enable them to manage their own affairs and ensure that the development process is aligned with their own cultural patterns, values and customs, a United Nations independent expert says in a report. “In the light of the extreme disadvantages that indigenous peoples have typically faced across a range of social and economic indicators, there are particular concerns… that must...

The report of the Javid Chowdhury Committee facilitated the resumption, in February 2010, of vaccine production in the three public sector units, one in Himachal Pradesh and the other two in Tamil Nadu. Javid Chowdhury, a former Health Secretary of the Government of India, recommended that the suspension of their licenses for manufacturing vaccines in 2008 should be revoked in the public interest and on the strength of the compliance...

Unhappy with law ministry's disclosure of then chief election commissioner N Gopalaswami's "confidential" complaint against his colleague Navin Chawla, the President's secretary had asked the personnel department to frame procedural guidelines and make requisite changes in the law to avoid such "embarrassing" situations. The department of personnel and training, after receiving a three-page communication from President's secretary Christy Fernandez in March, issued directions to all government departments to make public records...