The National Green Tribunal, under the aegis of ministry of environment and forests, on Wednesday cancelled the environmental clearances granted to the 2,640MW coal-fired power project of Nagarjuna Construction Company coming up at Sompeta in Srikakulam district of Andhra Pradesh. The . 14,000-crore thermal power project, to come up in two phases of 1,320MW each, has been hanging in fire for nearly two years following violent protests by locals against the project that led to three people getting killed in police firings in July 2010.

Bid to prevent captive mine owners from selling byproducts; make them add value to ore. The Centre has moved to clear any ambiguity that could be misused by captive mine owners to sell iron ore fines in the open market. The move comes after the Jharkhand High Court in February stayed the State from banning exports, but relaxed it later to allow a one-time domestic sale of iron ore fines from the captive mines of Usha Martin and Steel Authority of India (SAIL).

Bauxite-rich East Coast region hasn’t seen a single mine open in 30 years. The East Coast region, home to 74% of the total bauxite reserves, continues to be one of the most-neglected regions in the country, as not a single bauxite mine has been opened in the past three decades.

State had sought . 2,281 crore for relief measures in 15 drought-hit districts. The union government has approved an assistance of Rs 575 crore to Maharashtra towards drought relief work. “The decision was taken on Friday by a high-level committee comprising finance minister Pranab Mukherjee, home minister P Chidambaram, agriculture minister Sharad Pawar and planning commission deputy chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia,” said an official who was part of the meeting.

Agriculture output topped the target by 7 million tonnes last year, thanks to good monsoon
After clocking a record food grain production of over 252 million tonne in 2011-12, the government now targets 250 million tonne of production in the crop year of 2012-13.

With domestic growth and business cycles becoming more and more globally-aligned, policy cooperation among members is bound to enrich global outcomes. Macroeconomic policy cooperation within the group of 20, or G20, has evolved through at least five distinct stages since the first summit in Washington DC held over three years ago.

CIL’s FSAs may not be diluted despite reservations of power producers, including NTPC, to sign them
NTPC's reservation in signing the Fuel Supply Agreement (FSA) with Coal India (CIL) will not impact the country's largest power producer as CIL will not restrict supply of fuel in the current financial year 2012-13 even if the agreements are not signed.

Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd (HPCL) expects to expand the Vizag Refinery plant to 15 million tonnes by 2015-16, a top official of the state-run oil firm said. According to HPCL director (refineries) K Murali, Engineers India (EIL) has been appointed as consultants for the project and they are expected to submit a report on that. “They (Engineers India) are expected to complete the feasibility report in few months’ time. Then we will have to take it to the board for approvals.

Reacting to the US government approaching the global trade body, WTO, against India imposing a ban on US agricultural products, including poultry meat and chicken eggs, the government clarified that it had already revoked the ban on imports from the US last September when it was declared free of avian influenza, a government official said. “We already removed the ban on poultry and poultry products imports from the US in September last year as it was declared free of avian influenza.

Dismissing the perception of policy paralysis surrounding the Union government, Planning Commission deputy chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia feels the government should raise petroleum prices as part of tough decisions and to attract international investment.