Creating the right environment

After terming it a ‘roadblock ministry’ under the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) regime, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led National Democratic Alliance government has set about changing the face of the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEF&CC) to one that enables ‘ease of business’ while attempting to maintain sustainable development. While the jury is out on the ‘sustainable development’ aspect, over the last three years, the ministry has certainly gone about revising and overhauling the regulatory regime of environmental governance.

This trend has continued as the ministry is in the process of ushering in more crucial changes to central environmental legislations such as Environment Protection Act, Coastal Regulation Zone notification, 2011, and is also on the cusp of approving commercial cultivation of a genetically modified crop for the first time.

Ease of business

At the heart of wholesale changes made in environmental regulations during the last three years has been the mantra of ‘Ease of Business’. This has translated into relaxing norms under several key environmental regulations and streamlining of the crucial project-clearance process, to cut down delays. In 2014, under Prakash Javadekar, the ministry moved at a rapid pace to introduce a flurry of policy tweaks to facilitate development and industry.

Foremost …read more