The lesson for India after Durban is that it needs to formulate an approach that combines attention to industrialised countries’ historical responsibility for the problem with an embrace of its own responsibility to explore low carbon development trajectories. This is both ethically defensible and strategically wise. Ironically, India’s own domestic national approach of actively exploring “co-benefits” – policies that promote development while also yielding climate gains – suggests that it...

-DNA   The ministry of home affairs has ordered an inquiry into the repulsive video showcasing Anadaman aborogines - Jarawa tribe - forced to dance nude for food before foreign tourists. “The video, we have inquired, was on the internet for the last 4-5 years. But we have ceased off the matter and taking congnisance, have ordered an inquiry into it by the Anadaman and Nicobar administration and UT (Union Territory) division. “Besides, we...

Union Minister for Rural Development Jairam Ramesh, in an article on left-wing extremism (“From Tirupati to Pashupati?” The Hindu , October 14, 2011), observed candidly: “It is not the naxals who have created the ground conditions ripe for their ideology — it is the singular failure of successive governments both in the States and the Centre.” There lay the main cause of the festering sore of naxalism, often characterised as left-wing...

-The Times of India   Apart from Dadra and Nagar Haveli, Goa was the only other state or Union Territory not to provide information to the Union government on the status of implementation of the facilities required under the Right to Education Act in March this year. The Union human resource development ministry sought information from all 35 states and union territories in March on the measures implemented and facilities put in place...

-The Hindu   Loans disbursed to State Governments by the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) for creating rural infrastructure has crossed the Rs.1 lakh crore mark. Of that Rs.6,523 crore has been disbursed in Tamil Nadu. This is the fourth among the States that have availed of substantial financial support from NABARD. The other three are Andhra Pradesh (Rs.9,711 cr.), Uttar Pradesh (Rs.7984 cr.), Gujarat (Rs.7,324 cr.), According to a NABARD...