-The Indian Express The certainty that producers once enjoyed — of finding buyers for their wares without doing much beyond minor price adjustments to bring supply and demand into equilibrium — has ceased to exist. India traditionally never had a demand problem. On the contrary, its economy was always supply-constrained. Proof of no demand paucity is that between 2000-01 and 2015-16, domestic consumption of both finished steel and cement roughly trebled, from...
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Planting forests no panacea for the cLIMate crisis: IPCC -Tarun Gopalakrishnan
-Down to Earth The IPCC’s Special Report on CLIMate Change and Land says land-based carbon sinks are not LIMitless The carbon cycle is classically described in terms of ‘sources’ and ‘sinks’ of emissions. The electricity sector, which converts fossil fuels into light and heat, is a source (as are most human activities since the dawn of the industrial age). Identifying sinks is trickier. We know that, as a general principle, more forest cover...
More »The hard realities of India's fast-track courts -Arunav Kaul
-The Hindu Many of them are understaffed and under-resourced Fast-track courts are in the LIMelight yet again. Smriti Irani, Minister for Women and Child Development, informed the Rajya Sabha that the government has proposed to set up 1,023 fast-track courts to clear the cases under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act. A few weeks ago, the Supreme Court in a suo motu petition had issued directions, stating that districts...
More »'Our livelihood depends on this land': A solar park in Gujarat is hurting a pastoral community -Karthikeyan Hemalatha
-Scroll.in/ India Spend The Charanka solar park may help India reach its renewable energy goals, but it has a hidden cost. The parched brown land in Charanka village in North West Gujarat, around 50 km from India’s border with Pakistan, seemed endless. In peak summer, during one of the worst droughts to hit the region in 30 years, it seemed devoid of all life – even doughty bush plants have lost most...
More »RTI amendment: Usurping powers from Legislature and States -M Sridhar Acharyulu
-Down to Earth The National Democratic Alliance government's move is an assault on the independence of information commissioners, writes former Central Information Commissioner M Sridhar Acharyulu Alas! I thought the Narendra Modi government is strong enough after its re-election. But now it is scared of the Right to Information (RTI) and the Chief Information Commission (CIC), as if they are monsters who can harm the power of the powerful rulers. The Information Commissioner...
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