The Ministry of Environment, Forest, and Climate Change (MoEFCC) has released a draft notification to create the Standing Authority on Environmental Impact Assessment (SAEIA) and Standing Committee on Environment Impact Appraisal (SCEIA) to fast-track environmental clearances. 

• The EC process is governed by the EIA Notification 2006, issued under the Environment (Protection) Act, 1986. 
• The need to establish these bodies arises from the delayed reconstitution of the State Environment Impact Assessment Authority (SEIAA), which halts the Environmental Clearance (EC) process at the State level and leads to the bulk transfer of pending proposals to the Centre.

About the Proposed Bodies

• Standing Authority on Environmental Impact Assessment (SAEIA)
  • Functions and Powers: To discharge the functions of the SEIAA if the SEIAA becomes non-functional. 
    • If the SEIAA fails to communicate its decision on a clearance within the specified timeframe, the proposal is automatically forwarded to the SAEIA through the PARIVESH Portal.
• Standing Committee on Environment Impact Appraisal (SCEIA)
  • Constitution: By the Central Government for each State/UT 
  • Functions: To discharge the functions of the State Expert Appraisal Committee (SEAC) whenever the SEAC is non-functional. 

Environmental Impact Assessments (EIAs) EIA is a decision-making tool that predicts the environmental effects of a proposed project and evaluates alternatives to identify the option with the best balance of economic and environmental costs and benefits. Under EIA there are two categories of projects: A category and B category- Projects falling under the A category go to MoEFCC for clearance.  Projects falling under B category go to State government for clearance which further gets categorized into B1 and B2 projects.