Akshay Deshmane

Photo by Quang Nguyen Vinh on Pexels

Mongabay Environmental News •

The long road to regulating earth use for highways and railways

Ordinary earth is among the most essential natural resources for national development and environmental conservation, yet poorly regulated and managed.

Used widely as a raw material in infrastructure projects such as highways and railway lines, its unregulated and excessive extraction can pollute groundwater and strip fertile topsoil vital for agriculture.

Over the last five years, the governance of ordinary earth has triggered multiple legal battles between environmentalists and infrastructur...
Mongabay Environmental News •

How Real Estate & Mining Firms Have Been Affected By A Recent Supreme Court Judgment

On May 16, a Supreme Court judgment struck down two amnesties issued by the Union Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change (MoEF&CC) for violators of the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) notification.

One amnesty was notified in 2017 and another in 2021, both drafted by the environment ministry to regularise projects that had started without prior environmental clearance (EC) or had extended beyond approved clearances. The court criticised the 2017 notification and the 2021 Offi...
The Economic Times •

125th birth anniversary celebrations: Ambedkar works reprint runs into copyright trouble

It seems like you're already an ETPrime member withLogin using your ET Prime credentials to enjoy all member benefitsLog out of your current logged-in account and log in again using your ET Prime credentials to enjoy all member benefits.

It seems like you're already an ETPrime member with

Login using your ET Prime credentials to enjoy all member benefits

Log out of your current logged-in account and log in again using your ET Prime credentials to enjoy all member benefits.
The Economic Times •

Ringzhen Tundup Shastri: The devout Buddhist who helped RSS reach Ladakh

It seems like you're already an ETPrime member withLogin using your ET Prime credentials to enjoy all member benefitsLog out of your current logged-in account and log in again using your ET Prime credentials to enjoy all member benefits.

It seems like you're already an ETPrime member with

Login using your ET Prime credentials to enjoy all member benefits

Log out of your current logged-in account and log in again using your ET Prime credentials to enjoy all member benefits.
The Economic Times •

Meet India’s first cow minister Otaram Devasi who likes to address himself as “Gaupalan Mantri”

It seems like you're already an ETPrime member withLogin using your ET Prime credentials to enjoy all member benefitsLog out of your current logged-in account and log in again using your ET Prime credentials to enjoy all member benefits.

It seems like you're already an ETPrime member with

Login using your ET Prime credentials to enjoy all member benefits

Log out of your current logged-in account and log in again using your ET Prime credentials to enjoy all member benefits.
Mongabay Environmental News •

Tata Steel, CREDAI & Others Have Been Trying To Revive Modi Govt's Dubious Amnesty For Violators Of Green Law

In early April, the Supreme Court of India concluded hearings in a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) that challenges a government-issued procedure for handling environmental violations. Experts say the case could significantly impact the country’s environmental rule of law.

“Submissions are heard. Judgment is reserved,” said the order, passed on April 2 by Justice Abhay S. Oka and Justice Ujjal Bhuyan. This order brought a more than year-long legal battle closer to the finishing line.

It began...
The Morning Context •

How a firm with links to Ramdev’s Ruchi Soya got preferential treatment

We rarely make our stories free to read. This one is, so make the most of it.We publish over 500 original, detailed stories every year on startups, corporates, stock markets and economic current affairs.Limited time offer $125 $99 for 1 year

We rarely make our stories free to read. This one is, so make the most of it.

We publish over 500 original, detailed stories every year on startups, corporates, stock markets and economic current affairs.

Limited time offer $125 $99 for 1 year
The Morning Context •

Haryana CM lobbied to get violators off the hook

We rarely make our stories free to read. This one is, so make the most of it.We publish over 500 original, detailed stories every year on startups, corporates, stock markets and economic current affairs.Limited time offer $125 $99 for 1 year

We rarely make our stories free to read. This one is, so make the most of it.

We publish over 500 original, detailed stories every year on startups, corporates, stock markets and economic current affairs.

Limited time offer $125 $99 for 1 year
The Morning Context •

With farm laws as inspiration, environment ministry takes an axe to the forest Act

We rarely make our stories free to read. This one is, so make the most of it.We publish over 500 original, detailed stories every year on startups, corporates, stock markets and economic current affairs.Limited time offer $125 $99 for 1 year

We rarely make our stories free to read. This one is, so make the most of it.

We publish over 500 original, detailed stories every year on startups, corporates, stock markets and economic current affairs.

Limited time offer $125 $99 for 1 year
The Morning Context •

Did PMO get its way on India’s controversial new IT Rules?

We rarely make our stories free to read. This one is, so make the most of it.We publish over 500 original, detailed stories every year on startups, corporates, stock markets and economic current affairs.Limited time offer $125 $99 for 1 year

We rarely make our stories free to read. This one is, so make the most of it.

We publish over 500 original, detailed stories every year on startups, corporates, stock markets and economic current affairs.

Limited time offer $125 $99 for 1 year
The Morning Context •

How one official helped Tata Steel and Vedanta get away with flouting green law

We rarely make our stories free to read. This one is, so make the most of it.We publish over 500 original, detailed stories every year on startups, corporates, stock markets and economic current affairs.Limited time offer $125 $99 for 1 year

We rarely make our stories free to read. This one is, so make the most of it.

We publish over 500 original, detailed stories every year on startups, corporates, stock markets and economic current affairs.

Limited time offer $125 $99 for 1 year
The Morning Context •

Inside a quiet attempt to hobble the National Green Tribunal

We rarely make our stories free to read. This one is, so make the most of it.We publish over 500 original, detailed stories every year on startups, corporates, stock markets and economic current affairs.Limited time offer $125 $99 for 1 year

We rarely make our stories free to read. This one is, so make the most of it.

We publish over 500 original, detailed stories every year on startups, corporates, stock markets and economic current affairs.

Limited time offer $125 $99 for 1 year
The Morning Context •

Letter from industrialist prompts minister to scrap environment policy

We rarely make our stories free to read. This one is, so make the most of it.We publish over 500 original, detailed stories every year on startups, corporates, stock markets and economic current affairs.Limited time offer $125 $99 for 1 year

We rarely make our stories free to read. This one is, so make the most of it.

We publish over 500 original, detailed stories every year on startups, corporates, stock markets and economic current affairs.

Limited time offer $125 $99 for 1 year
HuffPost •

Why Did Unused Electoral Bonds End Up In PM Modi's Relief Fund?

“I found it strange and intriguing because why should one buy an instrument of donating money to a political party and allow it to lapse? If I want to donate to the Prime Minister’s Relief Fund, I can do it directly,” said Prof. Jagdeep Chhokar, founder director of the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR), which filed a petition in the Supreme Court against the Electoral Bonds scheme.

“I found it strange and intriguing because why should one buy an instrument of donating money to a politica...
HuffPost •

Documents Show How Modi, Jaitley Gamed World Bank's Doing Business Rankings

On 3 November, for instance, Modi said, the rankings are an "indicator of India's strengthening economy and quick progress". He said this while answering a question posed by a BJP volunteer from Korba, Chattisgarh, who wanted to know the relevance of the rankings in the life of the 'common man'. Modi further said that the improvement in rankings over four years by almost half —going from 142 in 2014 to 77 in 2018—shows the Indian economy had improved twice over ever since his government was swor...
HuffPost •

BJP Minister Narendra Singh Tomar Won’t Say How He Spent Rs 11 Cr Of His MPLADS Fund Despite CIC Order

NEW DELHI—Union cabinet minister and Lok Sabha member Narendra Singh Tomar of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has not disclosed how he has spent over Rs 11 cr of his discretionary fund in his Gwalior constituency, despite directions from the Central Information Commission (CIC), HuffPost India has found.

NEW DELHI—Union cabinet minister and Lok Sabha member Narendra Singh Tomar of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has not disclosed how he has spent over Rs 11 cr of his discretionary fund in his...
HuffPost •

Why is the Indian Army desperate to suppress details of a fake encounter in Kashmir?

Releasing the information, the army has argued in a Delhi high court petition exclusively accessed by HuffPost India, served no public interest, was an "unwarranted invasion of the privacy" of the accused, and would result in public outrage that would "prejudicially affect the security, sovereignty and integrity of India", and affect military operations in the state.

Releasing the information, the army has argued in a Delhi high court petition exclusively accessed by HuffPost India, served no p...
Frontline •

‘A human rights crisis’

IN this email interview, Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, tells
Frontline that “accountability for human rights abuses and violations cannot be indefinitely suspended while we wait for a political solution. It is by adhering to human rights principles that tensions can be reduced and the ground prepared for a sustainable solution.” He details the consequences of the denial of permission to the U.N. by Pakistan and India to conduct a f...
Frontline •

New smoking gun?

Among the many high-profile defence deals signed during the tenure of the Narendra Modi government, the Rafale aircraft deal is the only one that has persistently attracted allegations of a scam. A closer look at the developments relating to the high-profile deal over the last three years reveals how and why it has steadily and increasingly become controversial.This deal entered public consciousness in early April 2015 when the Prime Minister announced that India would acquire 36 Rafale fighter...
Frontline •

All talk, little information

IN October 2015, Prime Minister Narendra Modi was the inaugural speaker at the annual convention of the Central Information Commission (CIC). The top body for adjudicating matters concerning the Right to Information (RTI) Act was marking 10 years of its existence, and there was curiosity about what Modi had to say about the law.Addressing a large gathering in Vigyan Bhavan, a government-run convention centre in New Delhi, the Prime Minister said: “It is true that Right to Information, first and...
The Economic Times •

Business connections between Vasundhara Raje’s son Dushyant Singh and Lalit Modi to come under ED lens

It seems like you're already an ETPrime member withLogin using your ET Prime credentials to enjoy all member benefitsLog out of your current logged-in account and log in again using your ET Prime credentials to enjoy all member benefits.

It seems like you're already an ETPrime member with

Login using your ET Prime credentials to enjoy all member benefits

Log out of your current logged-in account and log in again using your ET Prime credentials to enjoy all member benefits.
Load More