The apex Forest Advisory Committee (FAC) of the environment ministry has gifted away 5,000 hectares of pristine forest, much of which provides crucial corridors for animals to move from one habitat to another.

The FAC has recommended the diversion of 60 hectares of forest located within the Gola corridor in Uttarakhand. Green lawyer Ritwick Datta points out, “This corridor is the only feasible path for the movement of elephants across the Gola river but it is being diverted for the construction of the NH-87 connecting Rampur to Kathgodam.”

The Forest Advisory Committee (FAC) has recommended diverting over 500 hectares of forest land for an iron ore mining project in the Saranda forest division of Jharkhand, part of the core area of t

RANCHI: The Khunti district in the past has been feared for Red terror but there is a success story there too in which the conservation of biodiversity was done by roping the village community.

As part of its corporate makeover agenda, the Rs 7,000-crore Damodar Valley Corporation (DVC) is considering a handholding relationship with the World Bank.

INDORE: The World Bank Group has announced the launch of 2013 India Development Marketplace in Madhya Pradesh and pledged $1 million in grants to be awarded on a competitive basis to social enterprises for their development solutions.

Development Marketplace, supported by the World Bank, is a competitive grant-based program. It focuses on non-profit and for-profit development solutions that demonstrate innovative and effective ways to address the most pressing social and economic problems impacting the poor and underserved communities. The selected winners are given financial and advisory support to scale the impact of their work.

The newly-formed Cabinet Committee on Investment (CCI) is likely to approve automatic extension of environment clearances when it meets on Thursday, sources said. The move will not only do away with the tedious process of environment and forest clearance, but also free up over 65 million tonne (MT) additional coal annually, according to sources.

Last year, the environment ministry had made it mandatory for companies setting up projects to obtain forest clearance (FC) before applying for environment clearance (EC), where diversion of forest land is required. The guideline was later modified, allowing parallel processing for both EC and FC.

The project, supposed to be ready last year, had been delayed due to labour and land issues, and slow progress on the power plant front
Shine Jacob

With environment clearances delaying Indian Oil Corporation (IOC)’s product pipeline, the state-run company plans to commission its Rs 30,000-crore refinery at Paradip in Odisha this September.

Company, however, not keen on selling alumina to Vedanta as they are competitors, say Nalco sources

National Aluminium Company (Nalco), which has an exportable alumina surplus of nearly one million tonne per annum, stands to gain Rs 250 crore if it agrees to sell the intermediate product to its competitor - Vedanta Aluminium Ltd (VAL). The business deal, though apparently lucrative, is not tempting enough for Nalco, which prefers to export the surplus alumina.

The Supreme Court Thursday questioned the Centre's "authority" and the "very foundation" of its policy to allocate coal blocks, pointing out that its power to allot the mineral prima facie lacked legal sanction and was also "doubtful" in view of the current legal regime.

Putting the Centre in a tight spot for the second time in a week, a bench led by Justice R M Lodha underlined that the Mines and Minerals (Regulation and Development) Act did not give any authorisation to the government to decide who should be allocated coal blocks in the states.

The government plans to divest 9.5% stake in NTPC to raise up to Rs 12,000 cr

In a move that could boost the valuation of NTPC, the government will restore allocation of three cancelled coal blocks of the public sector company on Tuesday, a month before the power generator’s public issue hits the market. The Cabinet had recently given its go-ahead for restoration of the blocks. “The three coal blocks (of NTPC) would be re-allocated tomorrow,” Power Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia told reporters after a ministerial panel’s meeting.