Rich and poor countries have to give ground to get a deal in Copenhagen; then they must focus on setting a carbon price AT A time when they are not short of pressing problems to deal with, the presence of 100-odd world leaders at the two-week meeting that starts in Copenhagen on December 7th to renew the Kyoto protocol on climate change might seem a little self-indulgent. There will be oceans...

The new alliance, with India as a 'deal-maker', will do little to cut emissions to anywhere near the desired levels As the clock ticks to Copenhagen, how low is the world prepared to prostrate to get climate-renegade US on board? Is a bad deal in Copenhagen better than no deal? The US’ intentions are not good for the climate. It has proposed that it will not take international commitments but...

Unlike earthquakes, which can neither be predicted nor prevented, floods are both predictable and, to a large extent, preventable. The country has an elaborate, country-wide flood warning system in place, with two well-equipped central agencies — the India Meteorological Department (IMD) and the Central Water Commission — charged with this task. Despite this, the receding monsoon has caused devastating floods in Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra, killing hundreds of people...

Eighteen countries around the Indian Ocean Rim will participate in a United Nations-backed tsunami exercise on 14 October to coincide with World Disaster Reduction Day, the first time that the warning system set up following the devastating disaster that struck the region in 2004 will be tested, according to UN information brief. The exercise takes place in the wake of the tsunami that killed more than 100 people in Samoa...

KEY TRENDS   • In 8 out of 17 states/ UTs the flood management works were not taken up in an integrated manner covering entire river/ tributary or a major segment of rivers/ tributaries and the Preliminary Project Reports/ Detailed Project Reports (DPRs) were not prepared in accordance with the  scheme guidelines. There were huge delays in completion of FMP works which ranged from 10 months to 13 years due to delay...