Public consultation on Western Ghats a sham: report

Counted among the world’s top biodiversity hotspots, the Western Ghats is currently at the centre of a political battle pitting local ‘development’ needs against conservation efforts. Six States — Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Goa, Karnataka, Maharashtra and Gujarat — which the forest region encompasses, were supposed to submit recommendations to the Centre on demarcating Ecologically Sensitive Areas (ESA) here by July 31, but only Kerala and Goa did so.

Meanwhile, a citizens’ report compiled by campaign organisation Jhatkaa released last month has exposed the sham in the name of public consultations organised by the State governments while framing recommendations. On August 3, 22 Members of Parliament who met Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar spoke overwhelmingly in favour of protecting local ‘development’ needs and demanded that activities such as sand quarrying be allowed to continue.

London-style transport card coming to Kolkata

The London trip has inspired the Mamata Banerjee government to revolutionize public transport in Kolkata, starting with an Oyster-card type multi-access system.

The planned 'Kolkata Transport Card' (KTC) will be valid on all modes of mass transport in the city — private and state bus, tram, ferry and the Metro. The transport department has already started working on the 'integrated fare management and ticketing system' that will champion public transport and ease congestion.

Brazilian radio host slain on the air

A radio host who exposed corruption in a small town in the northeastern Brazilian state of Ceara was gunned down on Thursday during a live broadcast, authorities said.

Two assailants burst into the studio of Radio Liberdade FM in Camocim and fired three shots at Gleydson Carvalho before fleeing.

The journalist died en route to a nearby hospital.

“Today, in a tragic and unnecessary way, one of the most important voices in our region was silenced,” the Camocim municipal government said in a statement.

Carvalho had received numerous threats in response to his reports about political corruption.

In May, following the murders of two journalists in less than a week, the National Association of Newspapers denounced a “climate of impunity” in Brazil that fosters repeated violations of freedom of expression.

Snapdeal ties up with Shoppers Stop

Leading e-commerce player Snapdeal has entered into a strategic partnership with retailer Shoppers Stop to launch a digital marketplace through a flagship Shoppers Stop store on Snapdeal. The partnership will leverage Shoppers Stop’s product range and brand and Snapdeal’s reach. Shoppers Stop has 74 stores in 35 cities across India.

EPFO plans to invest Rs 5,000 cr in equities

he Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO), for the first time since its inception in 1951, would invest in equities with a corpus of Rs.5,000 crore initially through SBI Mutual Fund.

For this purpose, SBI-ETF NIFTY and SBI SENSEX ETF are the two index-linked ETF schemes chosen from the State Bank of India-promoted SBI Mutual Fund. EPFO manages a corpus of  Rs.6.5 lakh crore of pension fund of five crore subscribers.

 The past experience proved beyond doubt that, over the 10 to 15 years’ time period, the returns from equities are far better than the debt instruments, said Bandaru Dattatreya, Minister of State for Labour & Employment, who made the formal announcement of EPFO’s maiden entry into Indian equity market.