-Business Standard No 'smart city' will be created in the next five years, though a successful programme could see several smart colonies come up across the country The National Democratic Alliance government's ambitious Smart Cities programme will at best be able set up only 100 pilot projects in the first five years. Contrary to general perception, no 'smart city' will be created in the next five years, though a successful programme could...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: It's official: 92 acres in the Aravalis have been identified as a landfill site for garbage generated in Gurgaon and Faridabad. Since the area falls under the restricted zone where no non-forest activity is allowed, the Haryana government has started the process for exempting the huge land parcel from the legal provision. For the first time, the Haryana government has officially admitted in an RTI response...

-The Hindu The Compensatory Afforestation Bill has raised significant money, which must be used to restore existing forests rather than on artificial plantations On Parliament’s wooden desks, a Bill is knocking. The Compensatory Afforestation Fund Bill seeks to govern how forests will be raised, cut, and resurrected across India. It will be looking at how a fund of Rs. 38,000 crore, collected from cutting down forests, is to be used. Meant initially just...

-Hindustan Times Mumbai: Maharashtra government is finally waking up to the effects of climate change. Reeling under crippling water scarcity, it has decided to set up Maharahstra’s first climate change study centre. The idea of a centre was prompted by the successive weather eccentricities that the state has suffered in consecutive years --- drought, excess rainfall, hailstorms and drought again. The centre will set up in Aurangabad, the heart of the state’s driest and...

-The Times of India PATNA: With election round the corner, politicians are making promises. One such promise has been made by CM Nitish Kumar: If voted to power, he would ensure piped water reaches every household in Bihar. Sceptics ask how come as basic a human need as safe drinking water was not made available to the people of Bihar by their successive government in 68 years since independence. Piped water connection...