Some projects under the Smart Cities Mission would not be able to meet the June 30 deadline and the respective state governments would be responsible for completing them thereafter, Union Housing and Urban Affairs Secretary told the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Housing and Urban Affairs. In its report on the …
A 111-year-old law is one of the key options the government could invoke to handle the challenges arising out of the possible denotification of three Special Economic Zones (SEZs) in Goa. Last week, the inter-ministerial Board of Approvals had recommended starting talks with the Goa government on denotifying the three …
Economy on the move: The President, Ms Pratibha Patil, the Prime Minister, Dr. Manmohan Singh, the Lok Sabha Speaker, Mr Somnath Chatterjee, and the Parliamentary Affairs Minister, Mr P.R. Dasmunshi, arriving to attend the first day of the Budget Session at Parliament House in the Capital on Monday.
>> In a non-binding report, the European Parliament has given more time to car manufacturers for reducing CO2 emissions from tailpipes. Manufacturers should reduce the emissions to 125 grammes per km by 2015, rather than to 120 grammes by 2012 as proposed by the commission in December, 2007. >> Two …
Two years ago, Parliament passed the food safety act. Till date the union health ministry has not notified the law in full, nor has it formulated rules under the act. Instead, the ministry has now signed an agreement with the us to draw up standards for import and export of …
The budget session of Parliament will begin on February 25 with President Pratibha Patil addressing the joint session of both Houses at 11 am, it was officially announced here on Monday. While railway minister Lalu Prasad will present the rail budget for 2008-09 on February 26, finance minister P Chidambaram …
Moves are afoot to ring in reforms in the fertiliser sector. A Group of Ministers (GoM) on fertilisers headed by the agriculture minister, Sharad Pawar, has given its in-principle nod to the Department of Fertilisers' proposal to have an independent regulator for the sector. J. Sreedhara Sarma, Secretary, Ministry of …
Starting 2012, greenhouse gases from civil aviation will be included in the eu emissions trading scheme, according to a recent agreement by the European Environment Council. The agreement includes all flights between eu countries and those departing or landing in an eu country. The council proposed a cap at the …
on january 1, 2008, the government after much vacillation notified the rules of Scheduled Tribes and Other Tradi- tional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act. The day before, it had notified "critical tiger habitats' in 28 existing and eight proposed tiger reserves. It scored on both tiger conservation and …
The Romanian parliament is deliberating an anti-cyanide bill, which, if passed, will block a project to build Europe's biggest open cast gold mine. According to its sponsor, Senator Peter Eckstein-Kovacs, the bill is very likely to get through. The Canadian mining company Gabriel Resources has already invested us $300 million …
The European Commission has proposed tighter emission caps on cars, to be enforced with steep fines. The plan will fine manufacturers for every gramme of co2 emitted beyond the limit, with penalties that will begin at
Faced with 25,000 landless people from across the country marching up to parliament on October 29 to register their protest, the United Progressive Alliance (upa) government announced the creation of a committee on "State Agrarian Relations and the Unfinished Task in Land Reforms'. The union minister of rural development, Raghuvansh …
Tigers or tribals? Tribals versus tigers. This is how the discussion on the tribal forest rights act is being framed. The law, which was enacted by parliament a while ago, is aimed at conferring land rights on people who already live in forested regions. The government says it wants to …
The Chairman, Standing Committee on Petroleum & Natural Gas (2007-08) having been authorised by the Committee to submit the Report on their behalf, present this Seventeenth Report on
The 28 pesticide residues detected in this analysis of eight fruit items purchased inside the European Parliament building represent the tip of an iceberg: for in total the wider EU food chain is known to be contaminated with at least 324 different agrochemicals. Within this figure, some of Europe
back in 2000, there was a strategy (the Water Framework Directive, wfd) to deal with chemical pollution in water. Now, in 2007, steps are being taken to establish overall environmental quality standards (eqs) to protect rivers and lakes. On June 28, the Luxembourg meeting of the council of the European …
The eu regulation for the Registration, Evaluation and Authorisation of Chemicals (reach) continues to evoke controversy, even as it enters into force in June 2007. Approved by Parliament and Council in December 2006, reach is one of the longest sagas in eu legislative history. One of the key objectives of …
on june 13, members of the European parliament voted against diluting a law to regulate toxic chemicals and pesticides in its surface and groundwater. The move has pre-empted an attempt by industry pressure groups to make the law non-binding and let individual European states handle it. The draft directive sets …
Parliament debates climate change After the ipcc report warning about the impacts of climate change on developing countries, India witnessed a slew of debates on the need for emissions reductions in the country. On May 8, a discussion was held in the Lok Sabha on global warming under Section 193 …
Even as Niger recently permitted uranium mining in the Sahara desert in the country's north, its parliament sanctioned around us $60 million to defend mining companies against attacks by
