India won a major battle at the Durban climate talks with the issue of equity being included in the agenda for all future talks. While the formal decision to this extent would come only towards the end of the meeting this week, sources told TOI, that the key countries had agreed that the issue of 'equity' in climate actions and carbon space should be fitted into the negotiating text for any...
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Climate change dialogue at Durban keenly poised by Arvind Gupta
The 17th Conference of Parties (COP) under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCC) is being held in Durban, South Africa, from November 28 to December 9, 2011. Urgent action is required to arrest the inexorable rise in global CO2 emissions. What are the issues before this important international meeting on Climate Change? The last meeting of the COP was held in Cancun, Mexico, in December 2010. The 17th COP will...
More »Banks should lead the war on poverty by MS Swaminathan
At BANCON (annual bankers' conference) 2011 in Chennai, financial institutions explored avenues for greater participation in agriculture and rural development. There are a few areas in need of additional attention and investment. Green Revolution technologies are scale-neutral but not resource-neutral. Inputs are needed for output; therefore market-purchased inputs become important in providing soil and plant healthcare for higher yields. Social scientists point out that small and marginal farmers will be excluded...
More »ICAR proposes 100 more Krishi Vigyan Kendras for larger districts in 12th Plan
-The Pioneer With an aim to bring about the second green revolution through adoption of effective scientific agricultural methods, the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) under Agriculture Ministry has proposed 100 more Krishi Vigyan Kendras (KVK) across the country in the 12th Plan. In a proposal sent to the apex planning body, Planning Commission, ICAR has said that in big districts, one KVK is not effective as farmers have to travel...
More »Nuclear power is our gateway to a prosperous future by APJ Abdul Kalam and Srijan Pal Singh
'Economic growth will need massive energy. Will we allow an accident in Japan, in a 40-year-old reactor at Fukushima, arising out of extreme natural stresses, to derail our dreams to be an economically developed nation?' Every single atom in the universe carries an unimaginably powerful battery within its heart, called the nucleus. This form of energy, often called Type-1 fuel, is hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of times more powerful...
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