The Supreme Court on Tuesday issued notice to the Centre on the Tamil Nadu government’s writ petition challenging the Centre’s decision to reduce allocation of kerosene to the State by 55 per cent from June 2011, from 65,140 kilo litres to 29,060 KL.

A three-judge Bench of Chief Justice Altamas Kabir and Justices Vikramajit Sen and Kurian Joseph issued notice after hearing Additional Advocate General Subramonium Prasad, appearing for Tamil Nadu.

The green cess, the bill for which was passed in the just-concluded legislative assembly, is expected to contribute between 100 crore to 120 crore to the treasury annually, official sources said.

Prime minister's office wants OMCs to bear credit subsidy for remaining 8 subsidised units on reimbursement basis

Even as the Centre is accelerating the Direct Benefits Transfer (DBT) scheme for subsidised LPG cylinders, oil marketing companies are unlikely to benefit much from it. This is because the Prime Minister's Office has proposed that the government credit subsidy for only one cylinder into a beneficiary's account. Subsidy on the remaining quota of eight liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) cylinders would be borne by oil marketing companies (OMCs), which the government would reimburse later.

India’s energy consumption has risen at a compounded annual growth rate of 5.96% in the last three decades even while GDP has grown by 5.7%, pointing to need for fuel price reforms and securing more of the hydrocarbon from domestic sources.

According to the Energy Statistics report for 2013 prepared by the ministry of statistics and programme implementation (MoSPI), the per capita energy consumption has grown by five times to 6205.25 kWh at the end of 2011-12 from 1,204.39 kWh in 1970-71, a CAGR growth of 3.98%. The per capita energy consumption was up by 7.2% during 2011-12.

Current policies on containing air pollution, particularly in cities, are regressive

Our health is not on anybody's agenda. Or we just don't seem to make the connections between the growing burden of disease and the deteriorating condition of our environment. We don't really believe science, which tells us each passing day how toxins affect our bodies, leading to high rates of both morbidity and mortality. It is true that it is difficult to establish cause and effect; but we know more than enough to say that air pollution is today a leading cause of both disease and death in India and other parts of South Asia.

Energy NGO Teri has revolutionised 500,000 lives through a scheme that uses solar LED lanterns to provide cheap power

Oil-marketing companies (OMCs) have decided to increase petrol prices by Rs 1.40 per litre with effect from Friday midnight. With this, petrol price in Delhi would be Rs 70.46 a litre now.

The last price hike was on February 16. Between then and now, international petrol prices rose from $128.57 per barrel to $131 per barrel, which necessitated price revision, said an IndianOil Corporation (IOC) release. The rupee has also depreciated from Rs 53.43 to Rs 54.15 versus dollar in the same period.