{"id":31774,"date":"2025-04-06T08:03:00","date_gmt":"2025-04-06T02:33:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/?p=31774"},"modified":"2025-04-16T14:41:37","modified_gmt":"2025-04-16T09:11:37","slug":"star-rating-system-for-state-environmental-bodies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/star-rating-system-for-state-environmental-bodies\/","title":{"rendered":"Star-Rating System for State Environmental Bodies"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2>Star-Rating System for Environmental Clearances<\/h2>\n<p>On January 17, <strong>2022<\/strong>, the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEF&amp;CC) introduced a star-rating system to evaluate State Environmental Impact Assessment Authorities (SEIAAs). The purpose was to assess their efficiency in granting clearances for industrial and infrastructure projects. The star ratings ranged from 0 to 7, with higher ratings reflecting:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Faster approval times.<\/li>\n<li>Stricter adherence to timelines set out in the 2006 Environment Impact Assessment (EIA) Notification.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3>Objective and Purpose<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Promoting Ease of Doing Business:<\/strong> The Ministry\u2019s aim was to streamline the environmental clearance process to foster a more business-friendly environment, while also maintaining regulatory standards.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Incentivizing States: <\/strong>The star-rating system was designed to:\n<ul>\n<li>Recognize and incentivize states that adhered to timelines and regulatory standards.<\/li>\n<li>Encourage environmental bodies to expedite the clearance process without compromising the environment.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3>Challenges and Legal Dispute<\/h3>\n<p>The introduction of the star-rating system faced significant opposition, particularly from environmental advocacy groups.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Concerns Raised by Tamil Nadu Fishermen&#8217;s Association: <\/strong>The Tamil Nadu Fishermen&#8217;s Association argued that the star-rating system could compromise the scrutiny of environmental clearances.\n<ul>\n<li>Their concern was that the emphasis on speeding up the clearance process could dilute the thoroughness required in assessing projects that may impact environmentally sensitive areas.<\/li>\n<li>They emphasized the risk of weakening the environmental safeguards essential for protecting local ecosystems, biodiversity, and community livelihoods.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>Legal Challenge: <\/strong>The dispute led to intervention by the National Green Tribunal (NGT). The NGT issued an order noting that the MoEF &amp; CC had effectively &#8220;given up&#8221; on the system.\n<ul>\n<li>The Ministry withdrew the original Office Memorandum (OM) dated January 17, 2022, with a possibility of issuing a revised memorandum in the future.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Star-Rating System for Environmental Clearances\u00a0FAQs<\/h2>\n<p><strong>Q1. <\/strong>What is the star rating system for SEIAA?<\/p>\n<p><strong>Ans. <\/strong>The star rating system evaluates environmental performance of projects, awarding stars based on compliance with environmental standards and sustainability.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Source:<\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.newindianexpress.com\/states\/tamil-nadu\/2025\/Apr\/05\/centre-drops-star-rating-system-for-state-environmental-bodies-after-tn-fishermens-legal-challenge#:~:text=CHENNAI%3A%20The%20Union%20Ministry%20of,for%20industrial%20and%20infrastructure%20projects.\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">NIE<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Centre has withdrawn the star-rating system for state environmental bodies following a legal challenge by Tamil Nadu fishermen, as directed by the NGT.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":31775,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-31774","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-upsc-prelims-current-affairs","8":"no-featured-image-padding"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31774","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31774"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31774\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31775"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31774"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31774"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31774"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}