The Newly Proposed Star Rating System

What the editorial is about?

The recently proposed Star Rating System and the associated concerns.

Context:

The Ministry of Environment, Forest, and Climate Change (MOEFCC) recently has announced the implementation of a new system of rating each State Environment Impact Assessment Authority (SEIAA).

What is this Star Rating System?

• The Environment Ministry is to rank and incentivize the states with this new system.
• The ministry will find out states that provide environmental clearances efficiently in a short duration of time.
• It will then incentivize such states. For this, the star rating system provides marks to the states on a scale of seven.
• The states receive two marks for clearing a project in less than 80 days, one mark for clearing in 105 days and zero for clearing more than this duration.