The Adani Mining Pty Ltd is confident of commencing construction of the Carmichael mine by mid-2017, which will be Australia's largest coal mine, despite growing concerns and protests from environmental and indigenous groups that it will jeopardise the Great Barrier Reef and Aboriginal heritage. There were protests in Melbourne and Townsville, where Adani announced that he will set up the headquarters of the project.

The closure of Nokia's mobile phone assembly plant in Sriperumbudur, near Chennai, just eight years after it commenced production, illustrates how corporations can quit operations at a point when it is no longer profitable for them to continue, while the impact of such closures on workers is profound. The special economic zones policy of the state actively promoted corporate-led industrialisation promising employment, and creating aspirations among young workers.

A study conducted among 10 Indian metro cities investigates the impact of municipal solid waste and animal birth control programme on stray dog population and its menaces. Its results show statistically strong and positive linkages among the variables such as human population, municipal solid waste, per capita solid waste, food waste, dog population and dogs per capita. People's general awareness and the efforts of municipalities are inadequate to control the dog menace.

Why is India firefighting tuberculosis without adequate data surveillance? (Editorial)

The Renewable Purchase Obligation mechanism and the trade of Renewable Energy Certificates were introduced to promote investment in renewable energy. However, the RPO requirement has not been met in many cases in India, which has resulted in low trading in RECs. While there are a few instances of state electricity regulatory commissions imposing penalties, a uniform enforcement of this mechanism by imposing specific penalties on non-complying entities can be recommended.

High levels of air pollution from transport systems in urban India pose a severe threat to public health. While long-term challenges remain to curtail pollution sources, immediate measures must be taken to minimise risks to exposed populations.

This analysis of the draft wildlife action plan says that it takes note of the injustices historically carried out upon the local communities and addresses such injustice to be able to create local support for conservation. It also examines the extent to which the draft has explored complementarities between national laws and international obligations.

Armed conflict and communal or ethnic violence have continued to cause massive displacement in India. The country is in need of amending its policies in accordance with the United Nations Guiding Principles for protecting internally displaced persons. The reliability of the existing data on IDPs and lack of a national governing body for protecting them are problems that need to be addressed.

A spurt in the cancellation of public-private partnership projects in recent times can be attributted to macroeconomic crises, inherent problems in the water sector projects, and foreign sponsorship of these projects. Since giving the renegotiation relief to many of these projects seems to be problematic, cancellation is probably the only way for the government to elicit more realistic bidding from the private sector.

The article comments on the Maharashtra government's Department of Water Resources Draft Godavari Basin Water Resources Plan from the perspective of the Vidarbha region.