-PTI New Delhi: A "callous approach" and a tendency to "unnecessarily" label documents as "secret or classified" is at the root of espionage scandals of the kind that surfaced last week, former bureaucrats have said and sought greater disclosure instead. "There have been government instructions on dealing with sensitive and classified information. There are standard operating procedures, too. In this incident, it seems someone at some level has been callous," former cabinet...

-Business Standard On the basis of resource-efficiency, pollution and compliance, state-owned power generation firms fare the worst A staggering 90 per cent of coal-based thermal power plants in India fare unsatisfactorily on the environmental front, shows a recent analysis. While state-owned power generation companies are among the worst performers, plants owned by private firms have performed better on environmental and energy parameters. In a report released by the Centre for Science...

-Frontline A critique of the report of the high-level committee on restructuring the FCI and reviewing its role by TK Rajalakshmi SOON after assuming power at the Centre, Narendra Modi's National Democratic Alliance government set up a high-level committee on re-structuring the Food Corporation of India that was mandated to make the food management system more efficient. It was headed by Shanta Kumar, former Union Minister for Rural Development and former Chief...

-The Telegraph New Delhi: The Centre is likely to make key changes to the land acquisition ordinance in the face of gathering protests from multiple flanks and a nudge by Swadeshi affiliates. A clause that expanded the list of projects exempted from prior consent of affected families and a social impact assessment is expected to be done away with, said sources privy to discussions that have been going on through the week. The...

-Business Standard The Supreme Court asked the Union environment ministry to review six specific hydroelectric projects on the upper Ganga basin in Uttarakhand. On Wednesday, the ministry informed the apex court that its expert committee had checked and found the six had almost all the requisite and legitimate clearances. But, the ministry did not tell the court the experts, in the report to the ministry, had also warned these dams could...