The odds of an El Nino phenomenon developing in July through September and potentially affecting the Indian monsoon are dead-even at 50-50, offering hope that India's agriculture and economy may yet escape a crippling blow.  A stuttering economy has seen heightened attention on the Pacific warming, known to disrupt the southwest monsoon, as poor rains this year can be a further brake on growth, jeopardizing bonus farm production recorded in recent...

-IANS Global warming is diminishing the Chhota Shigri glacier in the Pir Panjal ranges of Himachal at 0.67 metres a year, report French and Indian researchers.  The study, jointly supported by the department of science and technology, India's space agency ISRO and the Indo-French Centre for Promotion of Advanced Research, concluded that the glacier mass was thinning more rapidly this century.  The researchers, including those from New Delhi's Jawaharlal Nehru University and glaciologists...

In a fresh controversy over how the Mamata Banerjee regime takes criticism, the West Bengal Higher Education Department has sought an explanation from two government college teachers whether they took permission to take part in television discussions, in which they allegedly expressed “anti-government views.”  Debasish Sarkar, associate professor of Economics at Jhargram Raj College, and Shampa Sen, head of the Department of Bengali at Hooghly Mohsin College, have been asked to...

-The Indian Express   Rich countries must stop lecturing developing countries and accelerate their own efforts to cut emissions There is no shortage of people telling India what to do on low-carbon growth, but there is a shortage of understanding of what India is doing. Even the UNDP in its recent Asia Pacific Human Development Report urges emerging economies like India to do more for climate change. If one appreciates what India’s emissions are...

-The Guardian  Governments spend years negotiating environmental agreements, but then willfully ignore them – it's a dismal record It's global agreement time again. In two weeks, 120 world leaders and 190-odd countries will go to the Rio+20 Earth summit and – unless the talks collapse – sign up to new international goals, pledges, targets, protocols and treaties, and promise to commit to sustainable development, protect the earth and use resources more wisely....