'India finds itself in an unenviable situation today with its prospects diminished by acutely polarised domestic politics and the setbacks suffered during the pandemic,' notes Ambassador Shyam Saran, the former foreign secretary.
Modi, who was in France on the first leg of his three-nation tour, said there have been a number of constructive changes in the last five years.
Trump's diatribe against India in his speech on the Paris Agreement is hard to explain, especially when a Modi-Trump meeting is supposedly on the cards, says Ambassador T P Sreenivasan.
'Temperature and wind can be predicted more easily than rainfall.' 'Rainfall, as common experience suggests, is very spotty.' 'The last bit of physics required that tells us whether it is going to rain or not is very hard.' Professor Roddam Narasimha, the eminent scientist, explains the monsoon, climate change and global warming, in a fascinating conversation with Shivanand Kanavi.
Addressing the nation on Independence Day, the prime minister also spoke on renewable energy and the need to maintain a balance between development and the environment. Referring to the National Clean Air Programme (NCAP), launched in January 2019, Modi said, "A special campaign is being worked out to reduce pollution in 100 selected cities with a holistic approach."
Alibaba's pervasive economic and social influence in China is seen as a threat to the authority of the Chinese Communist party, notes Shyam Saran.
Uttarakhand Chief Minister Trivendra Singh Rawat said saving lives and extending all help to the families of the deceased is the state government's priority.
At the Paris climate change summit, there is talk of restricting temperature rise to 1.5?C instead of 2?C, which has been negotiated so far. This would give India less space to grow by limiting carbon emissions further, reports Darryl D'Monte, reporting exclusively for Rediff.com from the French capital.
India has an unprecedented opportunity to develop solar industry because like China, it offers scale which is critical to reducing costs and to stimulate innovation, says Shyam Saran.
The high table might have yielded relief at personal levels, but its political implications look forbidding at this point in time, observes Mohammad Sayeed Malik, the distinguished commentator on Kashmir affairs.
"We are committed to building a new India. We have to do this as early as possible," he said.
Veteran scientist P M Bhargava will return the awards he received from the government of India to protest against "the government's attack on rationalism, reasoning and science."
Being one of the most ecologically modernized state in the world, Japan heads to Copenhagen with its ambition of green leadership in the post Kyoto regime. Japan has nurtured this ambition through smart diplomatic endeavors, ecological restructuring of policies and technological innovations.
'This is a crisis which did not happen overnight. It was happening slowly.' 'Now we are mining very fast and this crisis won't last long.'
A CPCB official said a number of factors were responsible for the deteriorating air quality, including vehicular pollution, construction activities and meteorological factors.
Opposition parties in Lakshadweep and Kerala are up in arms against various measures initiated by the Administrator of the group of islands, terming them as 'anti-people' and have sought his recall.
Under the India-China agreement on the disengagement process in eastern Ladakh, the Chinese army will pull back its troops to east of Finger 8 areas in the northern bank of Pangong lake, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh said in Parliament on Thursday, in what is seen as a significant step to dial down tensions in the key face-off site.
Kavitha Kuruganti has been fighting for decades to ensure farmers are respected and get their due from the Indian nation. In order to ensure they don't struggle for a living, she works to ensure sustainable farm livelihoods and farmers' rights.
'The hardliners in Delhi are in for a big disappointment,' predicts Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
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Modi government must push reforms at a fast pace to restore growth.
"Nargis is a sign of things to come. Last year, Bangladesh was devastated by the tropical cyclone Sidr," said Narain. "The victims of these cyclones are climate change victims and their plight should remind the rich world that it is doing too little to contain its greenhouse gas emissions," Sunita Narain, director, Centre for Science and Environment, said.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday termed terrorism and climate change as the biggest problems faced by the world saying the solutions to these can be found in Mahatma Gandhi's life and ideals.
'It is frustrating when you have to say 'No', but you are helpless when something is not available.'
The revived factionalism in the AIADMK, if not curbed now, has the potential to split the party vertically, warns N Sathiya Moorthy.
SYL has been a contentious issue between the two states with the Punjab portion of the canal still incomplete.
"Farmers would like to remind the PM that it is 'andolans' that have liberated India from colonial rulers and that is why we are proud to be 'Andolan-jivi'."
India lacks China's culture of collective discipline, so what will provide the glue for people to cooperate rather than follow their raw survival instincts? asks Ravi Bhoothalingam.
Countering the opposition claim that farmers across the country are agitated over the three new laws, he said that those in just one state are being misinformed and instigated.
India stands at an embarrassingly low 130 among 190 countries in the World Bank's Ease of Doing Business rankings. But in our worry over it are we forgetting the big picture -- to make India an attractive investment destination -- wonders Avirup Bose.
Over 200 noted authors, including Salman Rushdie and Neel Mukherjee, have asked British Prime Minister David Cameron to raise the issue of "rising climate of fear" and "growing intolerance" in India during his talks with his counterpart Narendra Modi.
If Paris really meant to serve as a landmark in recognising equity in climate negotiations, it should have heralded the second phase of the Kyoto protocol. Instead we have all countries, India and China included, all signing up with voluntary commitments in what can only be seen as a race to the bottom, reports Darryl D'Monte.
We lost the gains of Rio and Kyoto in Copenhagen and Paris, but it would have been worse, if any mandatory restraints were imposed on our green house gas emissions, says Ambassador T P Sreenivasan.
With CPCB saying that the air quality is not severe now, the SC partially lifted its ban.
Modi is expected to travel to the US late September.
'Let us stand together in displaying our utter and complete lack of spine, in safeguarding our hundreds of crore rupees of income and in supporting this military-style mobilisation against the very masses who have practically treated us as gods and to whom we owe everything we enjoy.'
The SC said, "You must tell us some way of preventing unemployment also. We cannot have people unemployed and hungry. There are areas where firecrackers can be used."
'I hope that the incoming Biden-Harris Administration works with India to address some of the most profound geopolitical transboundary challenges.'
Cereals like millets can help alleviate malnutrition and improve public health, reports Surinder Sud.
Personnel of Kerala police and the forest department's Crime Investigation Team, probing the incident which triggered widespread outrage especially on social media, visited the spot and collected evidence, he said, assuring that all concerns raised will not go in vain and justice will prevail and the culprits brought to book.
'One can charge it at home, in the office, on the go. All it needs is a 15 Amp electric socket which is found is all our homes.'
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