NEW DELHI (Reuters) – Countries from India and Indonesia to Russia are tightening their grip on natural resources as they limit exports to build up domestic industry in a trend that will spawn many challenges to World Trade Organization rules.

Export barriers are tightening on commodities ranging from food and coal to iron ore and coveted rare earths that have critical roles in high-tech devices as countries harden positions on what they see as a sovereign right to development.

NEW DELHI (Reuters) – Countries from India and Indonesia to Russia are tightening their grip on natural resources as they limit exports to build up domestic industry in a trend that will spawn many challenges to World Trade Organisation rules.

Export barriers are tightening on commodities ranging from food and coal to iron ore and coveted rare earths that have critical roles in high-tech devices as countries harden positions on what they see as a sovereign right to development.

NEW DELHI, July 19 (Reuters) – U.S. Secretary of State
Hillary Clinton urged India on Tuesday to amend a law that has
put off U.S. companies from participating in the $150 billion
nuclear energy market over liability concerns in case of
accidents.

Clinton opened high-level U.S.-Indian talks with a polite
but firm push for New Delhi to get moving on key economic issues
as both sides seek to firm up a relationship that thus far has
promised more than it has delivered.

NEW DELHI (Reuters) – The new environment minister is likely to be more flexible towards industry to help power Asia’s third-largest economy, although a complete turnaround in tighter enforcement of green policies pursued by her maverick predecessor is ruled out.

Jayanthi Natarajan, a 57-year-old spokeswoman of the ruling Congress party, takes over from Jairam Ramesh, who set new standards in compliance that often brought him into conflict with industry but put environment issues in the spotlight.

NEW DELHI, July 12 (Reuters) – India’s new environment
minister is likely to be more flexible towards industry to help
power Asia’s third-largest economy, although a complete
turnaround in tighter enforcement of green policies pursued by
her maverick predecessor is ruled out.

Jayanthi Natarajan, a 57-year-old spokeswoman of the ruling
Congress party, takes over from Jairam Ramesh, who set new
standards in compliance that often brought him into conflict
with industry but put environment issues in the spotlight.

NEW DELHI (Reuters) – India could allow foreign and domestic mining companies to share less than 26 percent of their profits with local communities under a draft law, a mining ministry source said, in a climbdown aimed at attracting badly needed investments to the sector.

The bill proposes the profit-sharing formula in a bid to smooth land acquisition, a touchy issue in the countryside, where many oppose natural resources being carted away by outsiders.

NEW DELHI, June 30 (Reuters) – India could allow foreign and
domestic mining companies to share less than 26 percent of their
profits with local communities under a draft law, a mining
ministry source said, in a climbdown aimed at attracting badly
needed investments to the sector.

The bill proposes the profit-sharing formula in a bid to
smooth land acquisition, a touchy issue in the countryside,
where many oppose natural resources being carted away by
outsiders.

NEW DELHI, June 29 (Reuters) – India’s draft mining bill
will offer a prospecting licence guaranteeing the holder the
right to produce 100 percent of any find, as the country seeks
to attract foreign money and technology to its underperforming
mining sector.

The bill will also create an independent regulator for the
sector, Mines Secretary S. Vijay Kumar told Reuters, and should
be approved by end-2012.

NEW DELHI (Reuters) – A military standoff at the Siachen glacier, the world’s highest battlefield, is the focus of a fresh round of talks between India and Pakistan, and any progress on one of the least thorny issues may give a boost to the tortuous peace process between the nuclear-armed rivals.

Defence secretaries from both countries were meeting in New Delhi on Monday for two-day talks on withdrawing their forces from the mountainous no-man’s land above the Siachen glacier, where they have faced off since 1984.

NEW DELHI (Reuters) – A military standoff at the world’s highest battlefield is the focus of a fresh round of talks between India and Pakistan, and any progress on one of the least thorny issues may give a boost to the tortuous peace process between the nuclear-armed rivals.

Defense secretaries from both countries were meeting in New Delhi on Monday for two-day talks on withdrawing their forces from the mountainous no-man’s land above the Siachen glacier, where they have faced off since 1984.