We have been witnessing poor auto sales this year primarily due to the transition from BS-IV to BS-VI but it would not be incorrect to state that the number of vehicles has almost doubled in the last decade and the sector has witnessed a 10% growth rate.
India has moved up 14 places in 2019 in the World Bank's 'ease of doing business' rankings and is now 63rd among 190 nations. This reflects the positive impact of the reforms undertaken by the government to attract investment in the country. This has also ensured that India remains among the world's top 10 improvers for the third consecutive year. Balancing growth imperatives with environmental responsibilities remains the key challenge for India.
It has been a few weeks since the Union Budget for 2017-18 was presented. While many did not seem pleased with the budgetary focus on sustainability, the fact remains that finance minister Arun Jaitley has done well to allocate money for most crucial issues.
Yesterday, the Hon'ble Supreme Court of India (SC), pursuant to its order in the case of M C Mehta v Union of India (WP (C) No. 13029/1985), imposed a complete ban on the sale and registration of Bharat Stage-III (BS-III) compliant two wheelers, three wheelers, four wheelers and commercial vehicles across the country from 1 April 2017.
The radiations from mobile towers have been a concern in India for some time and this concern seems to have grown in recent times with the growing network of mobile service providers. The interim order passed by the Hon'ble Supreme Court of India on 30 March, 2017 in the case of Bhupesh Sehgal v Delhi Development Authority to deactivate a mobile tower as it was seen to be causing cancer has highlighted the issue.
The National Capital Region of Delhi (Delhi NCR) has witnessed numerous concerns being raised regarding the quality of air and the sources for its pollution. It is suspected that one of the contributing factors is the usage of petroleum coke ("pet coke") and furnace oil as fuel by various industries. Furnace oil is a "bottom of the barrel" product in refineries and is used to run boilers and turbines as it is much cheaper than gas. Pet coke is a by-product used as solid fuel in power generation due to its high calorific value.
If India bans usage of microbeads, which are non-biodegradable, it will severely impact the industry
The Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change ("MoEF&CC") issued a notification on 14 March 2017 ("Notification") to provide a one-time opportunity in the form of a six-month window to grant Terms of References and Environmental Clearance for projects which have started the work on site, expanded the production beyond the limit of environmental clearance or changed the product mix without obtaining prior environmental clearance.
