India: New web site tracks green clearances

In the wake of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's call for $1 trillion in infrastructure investment "at all costs," the Center for Science and Environment (CSE) launched a new website designed to refute claims that the environmental clearance regime is slowing India's economic growth.

The site features a slick map that identifies the locations of industrial sites by categories, including thermal power plants, cement plants, iron & steel facilities, bauxite mines, and so forth. There is also a database that is searchable on various different parameters, which should make it easier for journalists and researchers to crunch numbers on India's environmental performance.

As GlobalPost reported earlier this year, CSE and various environmental journalists and activists have long maintained that it is a rank falsehood that green clearances have held up development. 

The new website should provide valuable new data.