Carbon Copy A freshly passed amendment to the Forest Conservation Act has created a stir among ecologists, parliamentarians and stakeholders. With several contentious provisions, the amendment reveals an afforestation push where rights and justice take a backseat to commercial interests. This week, amidst a raucous monsoon session, the Indian Parliament saw the passage of several consequential pieces of legislation in quick succession. Among them was the contentious amendment to the Forest Conservation...

The recently concluded Parliament session saw the passage of the highly controversial “Forest Conservation (Amendment) Bill, 2023” amid wide protests and without much discussion. The bill is aimed to amend the erstwhile Forest Conservation Act, 1980. Among the changes suggested, the below preamble was inserted into the act, and the “Forest (Conservation) Act” is substituted by “Van (Sanrakshan Evam SAMvardhan) Adhiniyam” in the principal Act. While the Environment Ministry claims that...

India's July consumer price food inflation has risen to 11.51 percent from a year ago, its highest rate in three and a half years. The last time food inflation was above this rate was in December 2019. The price of cereals, pulses, vegetables and spices helped push food inflation into double digits. The Consumer Price Index (CPI) for July is 7.44 percent, up from 4.87 percent in June.  High food inflation...

The Niti Aayog recently released its National Multidimensional Poverty Index 2023, according to which the poverty headcount ratio declined from 24.85 percent in 2015-16 to 14.96 percent in 2019-21. In absolute numbers this translates to 135 million people exiting multidimensional poverty in this time period. In addition, a few days earlier, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) released its own Multidimensional Poverty Index, which in a press note said that,...

Scroll.in The Jan Vishwas Bill, 2023, passed by Lok Sabha on July 27, is in the news for its lenient approach to the crime of manufacturing “not of standard quality” (NSQ) drugs. But comparatively less attention is being paid to the adverse impact that the legislation will have on an equally serious issue, which is the regulation of pharmacies that have a key role to play in India’s drug supply. To begin...