India should encourage the second coming of SAARC with climate change as an urgent agenda and keeping Indian security concerns in mind as the subtext, suggest Lieutenant General Ashok Joshi (retd) and Colonel Anil Athale (retd).
India and China are in talks to monitor the melting of glaciers in the Himalayas, a border region crucial to both countries' water supplies, Minister for Environment Jairam Ramesh has said. "We are talking to the Chinese about monitoring the Himalayan glaciers," Ramesh said. However, he cautioned that India would not allow Chinese scientists "to climb all over India's glaciers", but sought a collaborative research programme.
Slamming a UN climate body for predicting that most of the Himalayan glaciers will melt by 2035, the government on Monday said such forecasts were alarmist and sans scientific basis.
China has approved the construction of the world's largest dam on the Brahmaputra River in Tibet, close to the Indian border. The USD 137 billion project, which is expected to dwarf even China's own Three Gorges Dam, has raised concerns in India and Bangladesh, the downstream riparian states. Concerns in India are centered around China's potential to control water flow, potentially enabling the release of large amounts of water to flood border areas in times of hostilities. The dam is part of China's 14th Five-Year Plan, and the Chinese government claims that the project is safe and prioritizes ecological protection.
Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari on Tuesday favoured giving a majority 51 per cent stake to foreign partners in joint ventures for building tunnels and detailed project reports to improve work quality. Gadkari said providing a majority stake to a foreign partner in the joint venture is necessary to ensure that only serious and technically qualified players bid for tunnel projects.
When in Landour, discovers Supriya Newar, one of the most important things to do and that too in large measures, is to do nothing at all.
He said the melting glaciers could cause a rise in sea levels which could collapse Greenland and Antarctic ice-sheets. This in turn, he said, could have a disastrous effect on countries like Mauritius and Bangladesh.
Run by a former cricketer and son of India's military heroes, Mike's Forest Retreat is an ode to all that we hold dear.
Heading towards a landslide victory in the historic Nepal polls and poised to form the next government, the Maoists have crossed the 100-mark by winning 110 seats out of the 200 results declared (according to reports that last came in). Poll analysts say it will be difficult for the Maoists to get clear cut majority in the 601-seat assembly in which 575 are elected and 26 are nominated by the new Councils of Ministers.
Nepal lost their Group D opener against the Netherlands in Dallas and next play Sri Lanka at Lauderhill, Florida on June 11 before moving to Kingstown.
At 13, Naseer Khan left Bihar to work in a saw-mill in Bhutan. He learnt the craft of making sofas, and some of the pieces he made found a place in the royal palace. He returned home after spending 35 years in the Himalayan kingdom, and has continued making sofas, restoring old furniture and creating wire-gutting chairs, all that has become a dying art now.
With contentions over important dates like the melting of the Himalayas being disputed, the scientific studies, which contradict each other are losing credibility.
'Himalayan glaciers are expected to become smaller, and small glaciers will have disappeared, but by no means will all glaciers have melted by the end of the 21st century,' glaciologist Markus Stoffel tells Rashme Sehgal.
Dinesh Raheja tips his hat to his favourite Raj Kapoor movie, as we continue celebrating the legend's birth centenary.
Why can't the Indian government propose to the Chinese a corridor circumambulating the Holy Mountain where people from both sides could perform the yatra again? asks Claude Arpi.
An accurate early warning system that correlates rainfall and the potential for landslides. That is the imperative, say experts as rains create havoc in hills across India and the toll mounts in Kerala's Wayanad slopes where landslides buried entire homesteads and possibly hundreds of people.
Royal Enfield is planning to introduce its electric bike initially in developed markets such as Europe and the US where it anticipates better traction for the premium product, a top company executive said on Tuesday. Royal Enfield, a division of Eicher Motors, forayed into electric bike space on Monday with the unveiling of its first model under the all-new Flying Flea brand.
Royal Enfield at the moment is working on two new platforms for India and other markets. The first new bike on this platform will be the Himalayan, which is a trademark registered by the company.
Sacred portals of the Kedarnath temple were reopened to devotees amid elaborate rituals early on Sunday morning, about a year after the Himalayan shrine was marred by flash floods that had left hundreds of people dead and many others stranded.
Real show stealer was Boomball: Ashwin lauds Bumrah's Himalayan feat
An Indian Air Force plane will bring the bodies of the Maharashtra pilgrims killed in a bus accident in Nepal to Nashik on Saturday, officials have said.
Parts of the Indian Himalayan region face the risk of major earthquakes in the future, according to a study conducted by the National Geophysical Research Institute.
The glaciers provide a lifeline for billions of people by feeding the major rivers in the region, according to the United Nations Environment Programme.
Climate activist Soman Wangchuk announced on Sunday that he will launch a 28-day fast on Independence Day if the government does not invite Ladakh authorities for talks on demands for statehood and constitutional protection for the union territory.
An appeal court in Nepal on Wednesday cleared the country's highest-profile cricketer Sandeep Lamichhane, who was convicted by a lower court of raping an 18-year-old woman.
Nepal begin their World Cup campaign with a match against the Netherlands on June 4, before facing Sri Lanka, South Africa and Bangladesh in Group D.
The Indian Air Force's Chinook and MI17 helicopters on Friday joined the rescue operations in Uttarakhand to evacuate over 500 pilgrims stranded on the rain-ravaged trek route to Kedarnath, with 10 of them being airlifted in the first round.
Many low-lying areas in West Bengal's sub-Himalayan region were reeling from a flood-like situation while major rivers in Bihar were flowing above the danger level at several places as unabated heavy rain lashed the country's eastern parts on Sunday.
Here's your travel guide to exploring some of India's most beautiful villages.
Set amidst gongs and music of the mountains of his native Nepal, Prabal Gurung's Himalayan-inspired Fall collection made a mark at the New York Fashion Week 2014.
Hundreds of people are facing a shortage of food, safe drinking water and sanitation in Kathmandu following the natural disaster, according to eyewitnesses.
The IMD said that rainfall over India in August and September would be around 106 percent of the long-period average of 422.8 mm.
A soupy, spicy, tasty soul-warmer to light up monsoon days.
Sikkim Krantikari Morcha (SKM) supremo Prem Singh Tamang on Monday took oath as the chief minister of the Himalayan state for the second consecutive term.
Assembly elections will be held in four states with the seven-phase Lok Sabha elections, which will start from April 19, Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar announced on Saturday.
Looking for fun things to do as family during this sunny season?
The Supreme Court on Monday mooted constituting an expert committee for conducting a "complete and comprehensive" study on the carrying capacity of the Himalayan region in the country, where unplanned development has caused devastation in recent times, terming it a "very important issue".
At least 27 Indian pilgrims, all from Maharashtra, who arrived in Nepal for a 10-day tour were killed and 16 others injured after their bus veered off the highway and fell into a fast-flowing river in central Nepal on Friday.
Mahindra is coming up with the Thar Roxx. MG Motor India announced a third electric vehicle Windsor. Hyundai and Kia are expected to introduce updated versions of the Alcazar and Carnival respectively.
From the Himalayan Butter Tea to Hyderabad's dessert-like Irani Chai, the many varieties of Indian tea are truly surprising!
