The Durban conference in December 2011 marked a breakthrough in international efforts to combat climate change. The EU and India played a key role in final negotiations that unlocked the pact on the last morning of the conference. Together, we found the compromise that provided the basis to launch negotiations on a new global legal framework for climate action that the world so badly needs.  It is no secret that the...

Research should find ‘frugal' solutions to food, energy problems Expressing concern that the expenditure on research and development in India has been “too low and stagnant,” Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Tuesday called upon industry to increase its contribution and stressed the need for enhanced public-private partnership (PPP) in science and technology. “It is in some way ironic that GE [General Electric] and Motorola have created world-class technology hubs in India, while...

-The Times of India   Bapi Sarkhel, in the eye of a storm since the December 14 violence near Poscoproject site in Jagatsinghpur, said on Thursday certain politicians seeking his arrest had benefited from him in the past, but turned against him as they saw him as a threat. Police has booked him on charges of fomenting trouble in the proposed Posco steel plant site and attacking anti-land acquisition villagers in the...

-EPW   A paradigm shift on global strategy, but will it make a difference to climate change or only pass the buck? The United Nations Conference on Climate Change in Durban ended dramatically with a last minute agreement of sorts, which only talks about more talks to arrive at some kind of legally binding instrument that will impose emission curbs on all countries from 2020. The agreement is simply not enough in...

-The Business Standard   A data battle is exciting news for us, almost like what breaking news is to many others. We’ve been closely tracking the ‘Curious Case Of West Bengal’s Missing Numbers’ for a few months now. The case is getting more interesting, almost mysterious, as the results of a Right To Information (RTI) petition filed by ISPR Research Fellow Sourjya Bhowmick with the Ministry of Finance show. A few weeks ago,...