The Union government tweaked environment-related approvals processes to lay down that those industries that have secured an environmental clearance (EC) will no longer need a consent to establish (CTE), a decision it said was meant to remove dual compliance. EC serves as India’s primary regulatory checkpoint for new industrial and development projects, mandated under the Environmental Impact Assessment Notification of 2006. It is issued by either the central ministry or state authorities. A CTE, on the other hand, is issued by State Pollution Control Boards for industrial units that could potentially cause air or water pollution. “The Government of India has accepted long-standing demand of industry to remove dual compliance of environmental clearance and consent to establish for setting up of new industries,” the Union environment ministry said in a statement.

Low-impact industrial plants and those with prior environmental clearances will no longer need permission from the state pollution control boards to establish or operate, according to a new notification issued by the Centre. The notification, issued on Tuesday, aims at reducing compliance burdens and promoting ease of doing business. Under the new rules, industrial plants with a “pollution index score” of 20 or below, as well as those with prior environmental clearances under a 2006 environment ministry notification, are exempt from requiring state-level permissions. However, these plants must still notify their respective State Pollution Control Boards (SPCBs) or Pollution Control Committees (PCCs) in writing about their operations.

The US-India relationship will remain as strong as ever, NR Narayana Murthy, founder of Infosys, said as he commented on a range of subjects in an interaction with ET’s Puran Choudhary and KR Balasubramanyam ahead of the Infosys Science Foundation’s announcement of winners of Infosys Prize. He also felt young founders should not have a disproportionate salary gap and not engage in vulgar luxury. Whatever we have achieved in economic growth is quite impressive. The economy is growing. But this is limited to urban areas; Our challenge, therefore, is to bring this growth to rural India as well. The only way to do that is by creating jobs with good disposable income; And if you want to do it, you need to focus on low-tech manufacturing because most of these people are not very well educated. They will not be able to add value through IT services, where you need certain kinds of skills.

Global capability centres (GCCs) of foreign companies expanding their base in India are increasingly tapping India’s IT services companies for talent, with such hirings climbing up to 10 percentage points in two years. The new headcount hired from IT services by the GCCs stood at 35-41% in fiscal year ending March 2024 (FY24) as compared with 24-30% in FY22, data sourced from mass recruitment firm Teamlease shows. In FY23, the number stood at 30-35%. Experts believe there is a consistent shift in tech talent hiring across engineering, research & development (ER&D), business process management (BPM), and IT services. And as GCCs rapidly scale, they will need to imbibe some of the better talent practices of IT services companies, which have historically been hirers of the best engineering talent in the country.

Karnataka has witnessed an 18.2% increase in the number of start-ups, rising from 2,568 in 2022 to 3,036 in 2023. This growth has propelled Karnataka to the forefront, now housing 8.7% of India’s total start-ups, the highest percentage for any State, said M.B. Patil, Minister for Large and Medium Industries and Infrastructure Development.
In a post on X, he said, ‘’This growth further solidifies Karnataka’s role as a national leader, now accounting for 8.7% of India’s total start-ups — the highest of any State.”
Karnataka’s supportive ecosystem, he wrote, was driven by policy innovation and strategic initiatives. The State also was a preferred launchpad for new ventures, fostering a thriving start-up landscape and reinforcing its reputation as a hub of innovation and opportunity, he said.