Speaking at an international workshop on Equity and Climate Change, held on April 12, the minister for environment and Forests, Jayanthi Natarajan, sought to build a consensus on the inter-relationship between equity and the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities in the Climate Convention, and the nature of the obligations they entail in the new arrangement that is to be negotiated. By focusing on a technical definition of equity the approach...

Here’s a “growth story” that Standard and Poor’s missed: a piece of official statistics shows good old India has grown — literally. Over 5,000sqkm of wasteland has been converted into “net” usable terrain between 2005 and 2008, according to the Wasteland Atlas of India that was released today. Even Bengal, pilloried for profligacy and other wasteful pastimes, has done its modest bit to transform wasteland. But the big battles against barren land...

At Old Seelampur, an impoverished neighbourhood in Northeast Delhi, rows of hollowed-out computer monitors line a dingy lane. On another street here, room after room on either side is piled high with dusty keyboards and metallic innards of computers and other electronic goods. Welcome to the wasteland of India’s urban refuse. Here, heaps of electronic waste — or e-waste as it is more commonly referred to — wait to be dismantled...

-Times of India Sunday Times had on April 1 reported about Assam man Jadav Payeng's unparalleled feat of single-handedly growing a Forest spread over 550 hectares on a sandbar in the Brahmaputra over 30 years. Following that, Jawaharlal Nehru University decided to have him over on Earth Day. On Sunday, Payeng was honoured at a function organized by the School of Environmental Sciences, JNU, for his remarkable achievement at a public...

Former Karnataka Chief Minister B S Yedduruppa might face CBI probe for his role in illegal mining The Supreme Court has allowed 45 iron-ore mines in Karnataka to resume operations. The decision came after the apex court-appointed Central Empowered Committee (CEC) found that there was no illegality or only minor ones in their operations. The mines include those of the National Mining Development Corporation (NMDC), Mineral Enterprises Limited and Mysore Minerals...