One looks upon the coming new year with foreboding as current wars in Ukraine and Gaza spill over and escalate and new ones erupt in incipient fault lines across the world, notes former foreign secretary Shyam Saran.
They said rampant infrastructure development without a plan is making the fragile Himalayan ecosystem even more vulnerable to the effects of climate change which acts as a force-multiplier.
China has defended its plan to build the world's largest dam on the Brahmaputra River in Tibet, assuring that the project will not affect riparian states and safety issues have been addressed through decades of studies. The dam, estimated to cost USD 137 billion, has raised concerns in India and Bangladesh, but Chinese authorities maintain that the project has been thoroughly studied and safeguards are in place. The dam is part of China's efforts to develop clean energy and respond to climate change.
'...hesitate to support the risk-taking it requires.'
'It was specifically mentioned in the Gadgil Committee report that this particular area where the colossal landside happened now should be in the Environmentally Sensitive Area under Zone 1.' 'Zone 1 is the most important and ecologically sensitive area, and that it has to be protected entirely.' 'At least 90% of the Wayanad disaster is man-made.'
"This is a momentous occasion," the secretary-general said after the deal was ratified by 72 countries accounting for more than 56 per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions.
The Accord was finalised at a meeting between the heads of India, China, South Africa, Brazil and the US in Copenhagen last Friday.
Leader of Canada's New Democratic Party (NDP) Jagmeet Singh has announced that he is withdrawing support to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's government.
Singh said the Modi government has changed the approach adopted by previous governments that the border areas are buffer zones between the plains and the potential adversary.
India is likely to see above-normal rainfall in the four-month monsoon season (June to September) with cumulative rainfall rainfall estimated at 106 percent of the long-period average (87 cm), he said.
The climate for 'doing business' remains forbidding, taxtortion is still rife, corruption at state and district levels has increased, oil prices remain extortive with high taxation, and the continued red tape has kept the enterprise system as stifled as before, points out Debashis Basu.
Representing India at the 'High-Level Segment for Heads of States and Government' at the UN COP26 underway at Glasgow, UK, Prime Minister Modi said that India is working very hard on tackling climate change related issues.
Rediff reports on the reasons behind this dramatic shift.
India on Thursday made it clear that it would not accept any internationally binding agreement and that its climate change targets were not up for review.
In his budget speech, the minister said the indiscriminate use of chemical fertilisers, herbicides, and pesticides, has led to a decline in overall soil fertility.
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.
On its 177th anniversary, Utkarsh Mishra explores the history and relevance of The Communist Manifesto.
The Earth will be 2.4 degree Celsius warmer by 2020 if the world continues with the business-as-usual approach to climate change.
There is a need to mainstream green finance and devise ways for incorporating environment impact into commercial lending decisions, RBI Deputy Governor M Rajeshwar Rao has said. Addressing climate risk in the financial sector should be the joint responsibility of stakeholders as it would affect the resilience of the financial system in the long run, he said. Rao made these comments while speaking at the CAFRAL Virtual Conference on Green and Sustainable Finance, recently.
The proposed exemption in customs duty on import of lithium, cobalt and other rare minerals in the Union Budget 2024-25 is likely to lower the battery production cost and help in making electric vehicles more affordable for the buyers, auto industry leaders said on Tuesday.
Indian and Russian officials have discussed Indian-Russian cargo transit along the Northern Sea route, joint projects in Arctic shipbuilding and possible training of Indian sailors for polar navigation.
The United Nations has launched an independent review of the functioning of its top climate change body IPCC, which has come under much criticism in the recent months for some errors in its reports.
According to Downing Street sources it was "no biggie".
Buffeted by allegations of sexual harassment, R K Pachauri on Tuesday quit as chairman of United Nation's prestigious Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, whose meeting here he has avoided.
New text is "ambitious and balanced"
Bharatiya Janata Party MP Jayant Sinha on Saturday said he has requested the party president J P Nadda to relieve him from direct electoral duties, joining the list of party leaders not contesting the upcoming Lok Sabha elections.
India cannot ignore the neglect of climate finance by the developed nations, Modi asserted at G20 session
Sending encouraging signal to the rest of the world, a bipartisan group of powerful US Senators on Friday agreed on a framework for a climate change bill.
Congressman James Sensenbrenner, the senior most Republican was among a high-powered delegation of US lawmakers, led by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi that visited India last month. Sensenbrenner has made it clear that the US Congress will not ratify any global climate change agreement if India is not a party to it. This delegation focused on global warming and energy among other issues. He said without India & China, the US will be at an economic disadvantage in a global treaty.
Stern says that we all know the pace of change has picked up in India
The average global temperature between January and October has been 0.68 degrees Celsius higher than the 20th century's average global temperature of 14.1 degree C.
'We may see even more restrictive policies during 2.0.'
'If you want help understanding that, I can lend you my encyclopedia from when I was in 2nd grade. It has pictures and everything'
For India, the talks will work as another opportunity to sharpen its positions ahead of the formal UN negotiations.
The CPI said there was neither any agreement over technology transfer nor any commitment for additional financial resources to fund adaptation and mitigation in the developing countries. In a similar statement, the Communist Party of India-Marxist Politburo said on Sunday: "The political leaders who gathered in Copenhagen have failed their people by not delivering an effective and equitable climate change agreement."
The metro, it seems, is politics-proof -- even if it comes at a high cost.
Amid a growing chorus in the party for his elevation, Tamil Nadu sports minister and son of Chief Minister M K Stalin, Udhayanidhi, was elevated as the deputy CM on Saturday with additional responsibility, in a cabinet reshuffle that saw the return of V Senthil Balaji to the council of ministers two days after securing bail in a money laundering case.
According to the report, floods (43.4 per cent) and storms (28.2 per cent) are the two most frequently occurring disasters.
India, which wants to double its coal output by 2020, in February raised the tax on mining coal to $6 per tonne from $1 in a bid to make it more expensive to consume the dirty fuel
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has said that the Quad is not against anyone, but for a rules-based international order and respect for sovereignty, in a veiled reference to China.
