We must bring a laser focus on our own interests, and define our friends and foes more clearly instead of trying to live by somebody else's rules. We must grow up, think for ourselves, think India First, asserts R Jagannathan.
China has reiterated its plan to build the world's largest dam over the Brahmaputra River in Tibet, near the Indian border. The Chinese Foreign Ministry has assured that the project, estimated to cost around USD 137 billion, will not have any negative impact on downstream countries, India and Bangladesh. The ministry has stated that the project has undergone rigorous scientific verification and will be conducive to disaster prevention and mitigation, as well as climate change response. India has expressed concerns about the dam, raising the issue during talks with the visiting US National Security Advisor, Jake Sullivan. China has maintained that the project will not negatively affect the lower reaches and has committed to maintaining communication with downstream countries.
India supports dialogue and diplomacy and not war, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said at the Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa (BRICS) Summit in Kazan, Russia on Wednesday, in an unambiguous message calling for resolution of the Russia-Ukraine conflict through peaceful negotiations.
Heatwave conditions are expected over northwest India during the next five days, with Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan and Delhi predicted to bear the maximum impact, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) said on Thursday.
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon On Tuesday asked India to take a leadership role in reaching a "meaningful" climate change pact in Paris later this year.
India is willing to discuss proposals to replace the US\ndollar as the global reserve currency, Foreign Secretary Shivshankar Menon said on\nMonday.
He said that energy will be the first chapter to be addressed.
Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Monday said people are finding current interest rates "very stressful" and urged banks to make them affordable. Speaking at an event organised by State Bank of India, the finance minister said that at present, India requires industry to ramp up and invest in new facilities, and added that lowering lending rates can help achieve the "Viksit Bharat" aspiration.
India handed over signed documents to the head of UN treaty division at the opening of the special event to mark the International Day of Non-Violence.
'If we want a better life, we have to treat nature better, and behave properly.' 'That's nature's message to us.'
Apart from the human body, human food will bear direct repercussions. From staples such as wheat, to coffee, dairy, and even the great Hilsa face the threat of reduced supply due to the extreme heat.
India and New Zealand have signed a pact to institutionalize their defence ties and vowed to boost cooperation in the Indo-Pacific. Prime Minister Narendra Modi raised concerns about anti-India activities by some illegal elements in New Zealand with his Kiwi counterpart Christopher Luxon. The two sides also signed six agreements to enhance cooperation in areas including education, sports, agriculture, and climate change. They also agreed to prepare a roadmap for cooperation in the defence industry sector and explore early implementation of cooperation in the digital payments sector.
US President George Bush has reiterated that the United States will not join any international regime on climate change unilaterally and sacrifice American industry and jobs, unless such a treaty binds the burgeoning economies of India and China to emission targets. But Chidambaram had slammed the US and other developed countries for creating the problem in the first place and now trying to coerce developing countries like India to carry more than their share of the burden.
It would be a tragedy if unchecked global warming destroys our habitat.
India expects partners to understand its policy of 'zero tolerance' against terrorism, and it will never countenance 'perpetrators of evil' being put on par with its victims, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said on Saturday during extensive talks with his British counterpart David Lammy.
They met with a warm embrace at the Outreach session of the G7 Summit in Apulia, southern Italy where they joined other world leaders to deliberate on the topic of Artificial Intelligence, Energy, Africa and the Mediterranean.
'Both international cooperation and self-reliance will now acquire new purpose.'
According to HSBC's 'Climate Confidence Monitor', one in three people in Vietnam, India and China believe that climate change can be halted, compared to just one in twenty in developed economies such as France and the UK.
A few interesting and offbeat moments culled from the climate change summit.
Rediff reports on the reasons behind this dramatic shift.
In June, Trump withdrew the US from the Paris Agreement on climate change and decided to renegotiate the deal that was agreed upon by over 190 countries during the previous Obama administration.
A former government official in Pakistan, Tariq Banuri is the director of the Asian Centre of the Stockholm Environment Institute and has previously worked with the UN.
Thousands and thousands of protesters, many of them students who skipped school, have gathered in cities across the world kicking off a day of worldwide protests calling for action against climate change ahead of a United Nations summit. From the Pacific Islands to Australia and India, protesters took to the streets on Friday, demanding their governments take urgent steps to tackle the climate crisis and prevent an environmental catastrophe. Greta Thunberg, the 16-year-old Swede who inspired the climate strike, tweeted her support. Check out photos from all over the world.
Will Indian scientists' measure up to the challenge of climate change?
Speaking at the UN Climate Conference, Co-Chair of the Green Climate Fund board, Manfred Konukiewitz on Wednesday said that the Fund is on target and will soon be ready to help developing countries foster climate-friendly development.
Shiv Sena's Dadaji Bhuse is the new school education minister while Uday Samant continues to be the industries minister.
'I am not a mother and never had an abortion either, so I had to understand motherhood and child loss from anecdotal experiences of others.'
The Climate Change conference in Copenhagen last year yielded the contentious and non-binding Copenhagen Accord.
The metro, it seems, is politics-proof -- even if it comes at a high cost.
What is sometimes unofficially referred to as a new Green Fund will be an outcome of the Copenhagen accord.
'Neither India nor China are ready to convert national actions into international commitments.' Senior environmental journalist Darryl D'Monte will cover the annual climate change conference in Cancun for Rediff.com
Alumni and directors of all IITs have proposed a virtual centre at IIT-Bombay for Climate Change Science, which would co-ordinate work of all environment related faculty across these premier technology institutions through a holistic approach.
Proposals are being worked upon at the Copenhagen summit to cut the greenhouse gas emissions in the atmosphere, prominent among which is the use of nuclear energy.
US President Barack Obama and Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao have already expressed their intention to attend the 15th conference of signatories to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change slated to kick off on December 9.
Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma has ordered a Special Investigation Team (SIT) probe into allegations of Pakistan links of Congress MP Gaurav Gogoi's British wife Elizabeth Colburn. Sarma alleged that Colburn had visited Pakistan after her marriage and that there are apprehensions of ISI infiltration into the Chief Minister's Office when Gogoi's father, the late Tarun Gogoi, was the chief minister. Sarma also shared screenshots of social media posts by Ali Tauqeer Sheikh, an advisor of the Pakistan Planning Commission and a former colleague of Colburn, claiming that the relationship between the Gogois and Sheikh appeared to be "deeply rooted." Sarma's allegations have been rejected by the Congress as "laughable and entertaining."
To ensure immediate cooling of the body, the hospital has set up a first-of-its-kind heatstroke unit.
During his three-day UK visit until Tuesday, Modi is listed to address the COP26 summit with a national statement about India's climate action plan in the afternoon session on Monday, ahead of Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison and Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan.
Although Trump had announced his decision to withdraw from the historic Paris Agreement on climate change on June 1, 2017, the process began on Monday with the formal notification and the US will be out of the pact on November 4, 2020.
A key UN climate change summit that will be attended by nearly 150 world leaders including Prime Minister Narendra Modi kicks off on Monday under the shadow of the deadly Paris terror attack to try to craft a long-term deal to limit carbon emissions.
The need for a manufacturing policy, reining in food inflation and raising investment in the country were among key suggestions given by economists who met Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and senior ministry officials in the first round of pre-Budget consultations on Friday.