-The Tribune   Industry is the first to be blamed for pollution. However, in Punjab, which has only a modest industrial base, a major part of the total pollution comes from agriculture. The Green Revolution, with its concept of heavy use of fertilisers, pesticides, and other chemicals, has caused a serious imbalance in the environment. To raise levels of production, farmers often indulge in injudicious use of such inputs, the use of which...

-The Economic Times   The Durban meet on climate change seems to work out fine for India. The conference has decided on a roadmap to curb emissions of greenhouse-causing gases by both developing and advanced economies; the actual accord is to be firmed up by 2015 and take effect in 2020. The rich, industrialised economies now need to walk the talk and take concrete action to significantly curb their carbon emissions. And...

-AP   A UN climate conference reached a hard-fought agreement Sunday on a complex and far-reaching programme meant to set a new course for the global fight against climate change for the coming decades. The 194-party conference agreed to start negotiations on a new accord that would put all countries under the same legal regime enforcing commitments to control greenhouse gases. It would take effect by 2020 at the latest. The deal also set...

China, India, Brazil say a pact must recognize the historical responsibility of nations that caused the problem to act first United Nations (UN) secretary general Ban Ki-moon said a global warming treaty may be ”beyond our reach” this week as India and China rejected pressure for developing nations to adopt mandatory pollution targets. “We must be realistic about the opportunity of a breakthrough in Durban,”” Ban said at UN climate talks...

“It will be an apolitical, secular movement with a pro-poor slant” A new group of crusaders against corruption is likely to emerge after a meeting at the Gandhi Peace Foundation in Delhi this Friday. Some of the former members of the India Against Corruption movement's core group, including Waterman Rajendra Singh, land rights activist P.V. Rajagopal, Medha Patkar and Magsaysay Award winner Sandeep Pandey are likely to attend the meeting which...