-TheWire.in Rights groups tell parliamentary panel that even though late environment minister Anil Dave had assured that concerns would be addressed, rules have still not been framed. New Delhi: Civil society organisations working on environmental conservation have petitioned the parliamentary commission, asking for the repeal or amending of the Compensatory Afforestation Fund Act 2016 (CAF Act) to ensure its compliance with the Forest Rights Act (FRA) . Coming together under the banner of...

-The Financial Express How about planting bamboo extensively along the banks of the Yamuna to sequester the carbon from Delhi’s vehicle emissions? According to the World Bank, India’s per person emission of carbon dioxide was 1,730 kg a year in 2014. Another website says this has risen to 1,900 kg in 2016. Bharathi Namby, a scientist, says it will take just five bamboo plants a year to make an Indian carbon-neutral,...

-The Financial Express Not very long ago—indeed, in July this year—the government had insisted that MGNREGA, as per the findings of independent studies, had helped reduce seasonal migration. To a question on what the government was doing to stop distress migration, the junior minister for rural Development, Ram Kripal Yadav, had told the Rajya Sabha that the government has increased the number of guaranteed days of work under the rural jobs...

-The Hindu Member countries fail to reach agreement on food security right, centrality of Development Buenos Aires: The December 10-13 meeting of the World Trade Organisation’s highest decision-making body in this ‘city of fair winds’ ended becalmed with the WTO’s 164 members unable to reach a consensus on substantive issues such as the food security right of developing countries and the centrality of Development in multilateral trade negotiations. However, the Ministerial Conference managed...

-The Financial Express Yet another WTO Ministerial Conference has ended with the 164 members of the organisation failing to agree on how to take the agenda of the organisation forward. At the end of the 11th Ministerial Conference (MC11), there should be no doubt that the WTO has lost its way. Trade ministers have failed to deliver a work programme for the WTO for the second time in a row—a first...