-The Hindu In order to have a chance of limiting temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius, we need suitable technologies to make low-carbon transitions in development right away Now that the Paris Conference of the Parties (COP) meet is long over, countries need to concentrate on global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, which need to peak soon and go to zero by mid-century if there is to be a chance of preventing average...

-Hindustan Times Ranchi: Better known as Jharkhand’s waterman, Simon Oraon had always been more popular among farmers in the district’s Bedo block than the country’s newspaper-reading public. But all that changed on Monday, when the President’s office announced that he would be given the coveted Padma Shri award for his contribution to environment conservation. Oraon, 83, has been waging a war against drought since the day he dropped out of school as...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: Launching the 'Housing for All' scheme last June, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had said a house is a "turning point" in the lives of the poor, which leads towards a better life. Now a government study on the benefits of houses for the poor in villages reveals how a pucca (concrete) house elevates status of the family and even plays a key role in marriages. The...

-AP Transparency noted that in places like Guatemala, Sri Lanka and Ghana, citizen activists have "worked hard to drive out the corrupt." Public-sector corruption is still a major problem around the world but more countries are improving than worsening and the United States and United Kingdom have reached their best rankings ever, an anti-corruption watchdog said Wednesday. Denmark remained at the top of Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index, a closely watched global barometer,...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: Dreaded gangster Sriprakash Shukla built his criminal empire on illegal money earned from railway contracts worth crores in places with big railway establishments like Gorakhpur and Banaras. But this could be a thing of the past as the state-run transporter is set to start online tendering of all contracts related to civil works within a month's time. Contracts for civil works worth around Rs 30,000 to...