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Sand storms approaching

Sand is a mineral and often thought to be renewable. However, the world is actually running out of sand. Sand is also a huge corruption and governance problem across the planet and its turned deadly. And its worst in India. M. Rajshekhar recently wrote a devastating 3 part series (one, two and three) on sand mining in Tamil Nadu. For the first …

Consultations on the District Mineral Foundations 

Goa’s District Mineral Foundation Rules have been notified by the government. Unfortunately, the Goa DMFs do not comply with the mining laws, in particular the PMKKKY (Pradhan Mantri Khanij Kshetra Kalyan Yojana). Already over Rs. 30 crores have been collected. However, a recent legislative assembly question disclosed that no plans have been drawn up to utilize the funds, as required by the notified DMFs …

Water for future generations

The Paani Foundation, a spin-off from the Satyamev Jayate TV show, has done an outstanding pilot in three talukas in Maharashtra. Over 100 villages participated in the Paani Cup. This involved sending villagers for training in watershed management, and then actually building water harvesting structures in 45 days in peak summer, just before the monsoon. Future generations played a key part in …

Areas reserved for Public Sector mining

The simplest way to achieve zero loss mining is to mine through the public sector. The Mines & Minerals (Development & Regulation) Act has a provisio permitting states to reserve areas (or even the entire state) for public sector mining. Here’s the official list from the Indian Bureau of Mines (IBM) of areas reserved in this manner. Gujarat, in 2009 under …