-The Hindu The PARIs Climate Agreement recognises that all countries have responsibilities. However, the developed world needs to shoulder the major funding requirement The PARIs Climate Agreement (PA) was signed in December 2015 in an attempt to limit the release and the effects from greenhouse gases (GHGs) in the atmosphere. Ahead of the meeting, various countries developed and submitted pledges or national commitments, referred to in climate parlance as Nationally Determined Contributions...

-TheWire.in Conditionalities related to utilising health services do not make any sense in the absence of a service guarantee, and only serve to blame the victims and not the system for its failures. Nearly six months after the prime minister announced maternity benefits of Rs 6,000 to pregnant and lactating mothers, the cabinet yesterday approved the implementation of the maternity benefits programme (MBP) – a scheme that will likely exclude a large...

-The Hindu Business Line In the Cauvery delta’s worst drought in 140 years, a padyatra brings home the harsh realities of how Tamil farmers are living on the edge and what sustains their resilience A farmer sells his sugar cane to the local public sector sugar mill, where he is mandated to sell his crop. Instead of paying, the factory hands him a slip of paper. Eighteen months pass by and he...

-The Hindu Online media companies don’t take responsibility for their content, he says Sam Pitroda, regarded as the father of India’s telecom revolution, says that he is deeply concerned with the way social media is being misused globally to propagate lies, hatred and false ideas. In an interview, Mr. Pitroda says that in India also, social media has not been used effectively and technology is not meant to be misapplied. He says...

-The Hindu ‘Banks told to re-verify and retrieve these payments if found to be erroneous’ Karnataka: The input subsidy that the State government paid to a farmer, Venkatamma, has been debited to one Vincent Rajkumar’s account. This is one of the nearly 40,000 suspected erroneous payments in the first-ever Aadhaar Enabled Payment System (AEPS) disbursal of input subsides — given as part of drought relief — to around 18 lakh farmers...