The lesson for India after Durban is that it needs to formulate an approach that combines attention to industrialised countries’ historical responsibility for the problem with an embrace of its own responsibility to explore low carbon development trajectories. This is both ethically defensible and strategically wise. Ironically, India’s own domestic national approach of actively exploring “co-benefits” – policies that promote development while also yielding climate gains – suggests that it...

Agrarian distress and growing awareness among farmers, tired of poll-time rhetoric and freebies, may make it tougher for political parties to woo this large electorate with worn-out promises in the upcoming assembly polls.  Ahead of elections in five states, including in Uttar Pradesh, the country's most populous and politically-critical state, many farmers say they are ready to pay market rates for power and other inputs provided there is reliable supply.  Swarn Singh,...

After leaving its rivals in Uttar Pradesh, barring BJP, tongue-tied with its poll-eve announcement of 4.5% minority quota in central jobs, Congress has flashed yet another ace by wooing the community with the promise of 9% reservation, also within the existing 27% OBC quota, in state government jobs if voted to power.  The promise will be made in Congress' election manifesto for Uttar Pradesh. Salman Khurshid, who is part of the...

-The Hindustan Times   Had the world's leaders decided to ensure that global warming would increase to 3 to 4 degrees Celsius, perhaps to 5 degrees Celsius, instead of the 1.5-to-20 degrees Celsius threshold (over preindustrial temperatures) that scientists believe earth can tolerate, they couldn't have acted more purposively than they did at the Durban climate conference. If this sounds like a harsh judgement that radically differs from the official spin that...

-The Hindu   The government's decision on a sub-quota of 4.5 per cent for minorities within the overall 27 per cent reservation for the backward classes promises to be the new trigger for a heated political discourse just ahead of several Assembly elections, including the all-important poll in Uttar Pradesh just a few months away. More than a decade ago, the V.P. Singh government ushered in the ‘Mandal revolution' in North India. It...