India aims at bringing United States back on board at Cancun climate talks but has termed its offer on climate mitigation as “homeopathetic”. To clinch US, India has two proposals. First, which appeals to the United States, is on measurement review and verification (MRV) regime. India has proposed that nations, whose emissions are one% or more of the global average, should allow verification of their domestic mitigation commitments through a United...

All epidemiological data in Chhattisgarh are ‘guesstimates' Underestimation of malaria mortality figures Public hospitals ill-equipped to handle severe cases Last week, the medical journal Lancet published the results of a malaria survey undertaken by researchers as part of the Million Deaths Study, an ambitious programme that strives to document the causes of nearly one million deaths in India from the period 1998 to 2014. As per the survey 2,05,000 Indians die of malaria every...

Microfinance is an effective tool for financial inclusion. Here are some elements of the recently embattled sector The recent controversy surrounding the microfinance sector has entirely eclipsed the fact that it is the first effort in India to have delivered financial services to remote corners of the country in a self-sustaining manner. The stakes are high for India’s poor, and we have to pave the way for orderly growth in the...

India has slipped to 87th spot in Transparency International’s latest ranking of nations based on levels of corruption, with the global watchdog asserting that perceptions about corruption in the country increased in the wake of the Commonwealth Games Against the backdrop of alleged irregularities in the recently held Commonwealth Games (CWG), India’s perceived corruption levels have gone up, with a corresponding worsening of its world ranking. According to Transparency International’s Corruption...

Delhi is an anxious city this monsoon season, struggling to meet an onerous deadline. Preparations continue at a feverish pace for the 19th Commonwealth Games (CWG), which will bear down on the Indian metropolis October 3-14, along with some 8,500 athletes from the 71 states and territories that were once part of the British Empire. Around-the-clock construction and spells of heavy monsoon rain have turned Delhi into a swirl of mud...