Industrialised countries are increasingly outsourcing part of their emissions of greenhouse gases to emerging economies such as China and India through global trade, a new study has revealed. The study by an international team of scientists has also shown that greenhouse gas emissions in the atmosphere have rocketed to unprecedented levels despite the global financial crisis (GFC) two years ago. Although the GFC did lead to a temporary dip in emissions from...

-Live Mint China nearly doubled its rural poverty threshold last week, in a move that will make an estimated 130 million people (or nearly one-tenth of its total population) eligible for various social support schemes funded by the government. China has now tweaked its poverty line for the fourth time in four years. Poverty lines are not set in stone. They have to be regularly changed. This development comes just as the...

-The Hindu   The Full Commission of the National Human Rights Commission will hear on Monday a petition filed by some Kerala MPs alleging a “threat to life and liberty” of the people of the State and seeking its intervention in the Mullaperiyar dam row. The MPs, including P.T. Thomas and K.P. Dhanapalan (both Congress) and Jose K. Mani (Kerala Congress-M), claimed that the entire State was panic-stricken over the possible collapse of...

US-based multinational Dow Chemicals has declined to share its wholly owned subsidiary Union Carbide Corporation's alleged past residuary liability towards compensating 1984 Bhopal tragedy victims and refused to submit to the jurisdiction of the Supreme Court of India, which is dealing with the Union government's plea for an additional Rs 7,844 crore to the gas victims. The UCC also took a stand similar to Dow Chemicals in not submitting to the...

-The Economic Times   India's food inflation eased to a four-month low in the week to 19 November as vegetables, cereals and eggs turned cheaper. The decline in the reading for the fourth consecutive week came as a respite to the government struggling to recover from a string of recent bad tidings.  Data released by the commerce and industry ministry on Thursday showed the wholesale price index for food articles rose 8% year-on-year,...