Agriculture minister Sharad Pawar today said the government should take note of Ratan Tata’s statement that India risked turning into a “banana republic” and cautioned against the excessive use of the CBI. Pawar’s statement came in the middle of a CBI crackdown on an alleged bribes-for-loans scandal involving several top financial officials and real estate players in Maharashtra. Another real estate project, which was once associated with Pawar’s relatives, has been...

The Supreme Court on Tuesday took strong exception to the Enforcement Directorate (ED) filing an “unsigned” status report about its investigations into the issue of black money stashed in foreign banks. The apex court returned the unsigned status report which was placed before it in the sealed cover to the investigating agency making it clear that “it will not accept the report which has not been signed by any official”. “We want...

Over a year after the Zamrudpur site mishap that killed seven people due to a cantilever pillar collapse, the Delhi Metro has issued a notification debarring Gammon India from participating in any Delhi Metro Rail Corporation contract. Gammon India, the contractor executing the Metro construction project on the affected stretch, has also been slapped with a penalty of Rs 5 crore. Delhi Metro blamed “deficiency” in design and material for the...

The environment ministry has told Vedanta Aluminium to stop all construction on the six-fold expansion of its aluminium refinery at Niyamgiri in Orissa, citing violation of environment laws. In a letter sent to the company today, the Jairam Ramesh-headed ministry also said Orissa’s forest and environment department should take legal action against the firm for the violations in its attempted expansion of the plant from 1 million tonnes per annum (mtpa)...

In yet another blow to the Anil Agarwal-owned Vedanta Alumina Ltd , the environment ministry has decided to halt the company’s plans of expanding its Rs 4,600-crore Lanjigarh refinery in Orissa. The existing one million tonne Lanjigarh refinery will, however, continue to be in operation. The ministry has found the Lanjigarh refinery’s expansion to be “unauthorised” and in serious violation of environmental laws. It has decided to revoke the permission given...