-Down to Earth The much-delayed climate summit in Glasgow did little to acknowledge that combatting climate change requires cooperation at a scale never seen before The 26th Conference of parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change — CoP26) is done and dusted, and the world has signed on to the Glasgow Climate Pact. The question now is whether this pact will go far enough to keep the world at a...
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Nearly 51 million internally displaced in 33 countries in first half of 2021: UN -Madhumita Paul
-Down to Earth The lethal mix of conflict, COVID-19, poverty, food insecurity and climate emergency has compounded humanitarian plight of the displaced, flags report As many as 50.9 people were internally displaced across 33 countries due to conflict and violence in the first six months of 2021, according to a report by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). The number is nearly five per cent more than the 48.6 million...
More »CoP26: Why is forest-rich India staying away from Glasgow Declaration -Jayanta Basu
-Down to Earth India not happy with the effort to link infrastructure development and related activities with forest conservation in the Glasgow Declaration’s final text India, one of the 10 most forest-rich countries of the world, chose to stay away November 2, 2021, as more than 100 world leaders committed to saving the world’s forests at the 26th Conference of Parties (CoP26) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change in...
More »Organic farming can lead to good yields, even in an intensively farmed area -Rajinder Chaudhary
-Down to Earth A survey in Haryana last year found that 45 per cent of 218 organic farmers got yields for wheat better than the state official average yield The relative merit of organic farming is recognised. Still, it is usually recommended only for areas of low chemical usage and not for intensively farmed areas such as those where the Green Revolution took place in the 1960s like Punjab, Haryana and western...
More »Drying up of MGNREGA allocation will shrink the rural economy further -Dibyendu Chaudhuri and Parijat Ghosh
-Down to Earth The focus of MGNREGA has, over time, shifted from employment creation to asset creation The funds allocated in the Union budget 2021-22 for implementing schemes under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) were exhausted within the first half of this financial year. The budgetary provision for 2021-22 was Rs 73,000 crore, of which Rs 79,810 crore has been spent. Many workers didn’t get paid; it may take...
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