-The Business Standard Government is diluting green regulations, not reforming them In his speech from the Red Fort on Independence Day, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said many sensible things about Indian manufacturing. It is certainly true that it must be a focus area for his government. As a proportion of India's gross domestic product (GDP), the share of Indian manufacturing peaked in 1996-97, at the pitifully low percentage of a little over...

The Business Standard The Planning Commission has not been central to the policymaking process since the mid-1960s In his Independence Day speech, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced the end of the Planning Commission. There will be few mourners at its funeral, mainly old war horses like me. So this is in the nature of an obituary for an institution in which I served for a decade and a half, and where I...

-The Hindustan Times The entire framework for monitoring environmental compliance is being dismantled systematically. This is a process that actually began with the UPA government, which replaced the feisty environment minister Jairam Ramesh with the more pliant Jayanthi Natarajan. With industry lobbies still crying wolf, she too made way for Veerappa Moily, the petroleum and natural gas minister, without the UPA seeing anything contradictory in someone holding both those responsibilities. In just a month,...

-Outlook India ranked fifth amongst top 10 wind power producers in the world by adding 1,700 MW capacity in 2013, a report said. "China was the leading wind power producer by adding 16,100 MW capacity in 2013, followed by USA, Germany and Spain," Renewables 2014 Global Status Report said. By the end of 2013, China, the US, Brazil, Canada and Germany remained the top countries for total installed renewable power capacity, the report...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) wants the Narendra Modi government to give it Right to Information (RTI) powers as it has been facing problems in obtaining details relevant to its audits of government finances and decision making. CAG Shashi Kant Sharma has written a letter to finance minister Arun Jaitley demanding that the national auditor should be given RTI powers to access information and a...