{"id":45674,"date":"2025-04-05T06:26:55","date_gmt":"2025-04-05T00:56:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/?p=45674"},"modified":"2025-05-07T19:59:15","modified_gmt":"2025-05-07T14:29:15","slug":"star-rating-system-for-environmental-clearances-made-inoperative-by-environment-ministry","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/star-rating-system-for-environmental-clearances-made-inoperative-by-environment-ministry\/","title":{"rendered":"Star-Rating System for Environmental Clearances Made Inoperative by Environment Ministry"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2>What\u2019s in Today\u2019s Article?<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Star-Rating System for Environmental Clearances Latest News<\/li>\n<li>Introduction of the Star-Rating System<\/li>\n<li>Details of the Star-Rating System<\/li>\n<li>Technology Integration &#8211; PARIVESH Portal<\/li>\n<li>Legal Challenges and Withdrawal of the Star-Rating System<\/li>\n<li>Conclusion<\/li>\n<li>Star-Rating System for Environmental Clearances FAQs<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Star-Rating System for Environmental Clearances Latest News<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>The MoEF&amp;CC has <strong>officially withdrawn<\/strong> the January 2022 Office Memorandum (OM) that introduced <strong>a star-rating system for evaluating State Environmental Impact Assessment Authorities (SEIAAs)<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li>This was done by the Union Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEF&amp;CC) <strong>following a legal challenge and intervention by the National Green Tribunal (NGT).<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Introduction of the Star-Rating System<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Introduced on:<\/strong> January 17, 2022<\/li>\n<li><strong>Purpose:<\/strong> To incentivise SEIAAs to grant timely environmental clearances under the <strong>2006 Environment Impact Assessment (EIA) Notification.<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Objective:<\/strong> Promote ease of doing business by ranking states based on efficiency in clearance processes.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Origin: <\/strong>Decision followed a November 2021 meeting chaired by the then Cabinet Secretary Rajiv Gauba.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Details of the Star-Rating System<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Criteria for rating:<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>Time taken to process and grant environmental clearances.<\/li>\n<li>Adherence to stipulated timelines.<\/li>\n<li>Performance in pre-approval and approval stages.<\/li>\n<li>Scores ranged from 0 to 7 stars.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>Targeted bodies:<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>SEIAAs responsible for Category B projects.<\/li>\n<li>Category A projects continued to be appraised by the MoEF&amp;CC at the central level.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Technology Integration &#8211; PARIVESH Portal<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>The star-rating system was integrated with <strong>PARIVESH 1.0<\/strong>, a single-window platform for environmental clearance processes.<\/li>\n<li>The ministry had planned to migrate and revise the rating criteria for <strong>PARIVESH 2.0<\/strong>, but this is now on hold due to the withdrawal.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Legal Challenges and Withdrawal of the Star-Rating System<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Petition filed by: <\/strong>Meenava Thantai, a Tamil Nadu-based fishermen\u2019s association.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Grounds of challenge:<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>The system was arbitrary.<\/li>\n<li>Allegedly weakened environmental scrutiny and diluted the EIA process.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>NGT proceedings and order:\u00a0<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>The OM dated 17.01.2022 is declared inoperative on March 27, 2025.<\/li>\n<li><strong>MoEF&amp;CC stated<\/strong> that a new set of criteria may be developed in the future.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Conclusion<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>The case highlights following<strong> issues in environmental governance<\/strong> &#8211;\n<ul>\n<li>Balance between development and environmental regulation.<\/li>\n<li>Role of NGT in environmental jurisprudence.<\/li>\n<li>Ease of doing business vs. environmental safeguards.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>The withdrawal of the star-rating system <strong>reflects a step back in promoting administrative efficiency through ratings.<\/strong><\/li>\n<li>The Centre now acknowledges the <strong>need for review and revision<\/strong> of criteria to ensure that <strong>environmental integrity<\/strong> is not compromised.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Star-Rating System for Environmental Clearances FAQs<\/h2>\n<p><strong>Q1.<\/strong> What was the objective behind the introduction of the star-rating system by the MoEF&amp;CC in 2022?<\/p>\n<p><strong>Ans.<\/strong> The star-rating system aimed to evaluate and incentivise State Environment Impact Assessment Authorities (SEIAAs) for their efficiency and timeliness in granting environmental clearances.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Q2.<\/strong> Why did the National Green Tribunal (NGT) declare the star-rating system inoperative?<\/p>\n<p><strong>Ans. <\/strong>The NGT declared it inoperative after the MoEF&amp;CC informed the tribunal that it had withdrawn the January 2022 Office Memorandum and intended to revise the criteria in future.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Q3.<\/strong> What was the primary concern raised by the petitioners against the star-rating system?<\/p>\n<p><strong>Ans. <\/strong>The petitioners argued that the system was arbitrary and risked diluting the scrutiny of development projects under the Environment Impact Assessment (EIA) notification of 2006.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Q4. <\/strong>What is the significance of the PARIVESH portal in the environmental clearance process?<\/p>\n<p><strong>Ans. <\/strong>PARIVESH is an online single-window platform developed to streamline, monitor, and manage the environmental clearance process for various projects.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Q5. <\/strong>Distinguish between Category A and Category B projects under the EIA Notification, 2006.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Ans. <\/strong>Category A projects are appraised by the central MoEF&amp;CC, whereas Category B projects fall under the jurisdiction of SEIAAs at the state level.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Source: <\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/indianexpress.com\/article\/india\/environment-bodies-star-rating-system-centre-ngt-9924323\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">IE<strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The MoEF&#038;CC has officially withdrawn the January 2022 Office Memorandum (OM) that introduced a star-rating system for evaluating SEIAAs.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":45675,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-45674","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-upsc-mains-current-affairs","8":"no-featured-image-padding"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45674","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=45674"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45674\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/45675"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45674"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=45674"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45674"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}