The Indian Summers are finally over. Jairam Ramesh, India’s environment minister, has betrayed earlier expectations (boosted particularly by his decision last year to ban Vedanta’s Nyamgiri mine) that he would put people and environment before trade and industry. The POSCO iron & steel project is potentially the biggest foreign-owned minerals venture in India’s recent history. Now Ramesh has given it a conditional go-ahead. This has sparked outrage from many civil society groups in India – and flies in the face of authoritative condemnations of the venture.
See http://www.minesandcommunities.org/article.php?a=10689.
POSCO is a South Korean company. British-based investors in POSCO include Barclays, Alliance Bernstein/Alliance Bernstein Global Wealth Management, Foreign and Colonial Investment Trust PLC, and Henderson Far East Income Limited: see http://moneytometal.org/index.php?title=Special%3ASearch&search=Posco&go=Go.