Reading the lines that Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh delivered in the Rajya Sabha on Tuesday and between them, the message is evident. “We have been successful in defending India’s national interests,” he said. “I didn’t go to Copenhagen with the mandate of saving the world or humanity. My mandate was to defend India’s right to develop at a faster rate. For Western countries, it is an environmental issue but for...

The Copenhagen Accord on climate change marks a shift from a government pledge to Parliament, environment minister Jairam Ramesh accepted today, but asserted that this would not compromise India’s sovereignty. Ramesh had committed to Parliament before leaving for the UN climate summit in Copenhagen earlier this month that India would only provide information about its domestic actions to curb greenhouse emission to the international community. But the accord crafted on...

In the Indian reform story, policies on land have been the least reformed one, said Ratan Tata on Monday. The Chairman of the Tata Group, whose company Tata Motors had to shift the production base for its Nano car from Singur in West Bengal to Sanand in Gujarat following continuous protests over land acquisition for the project, said political leaders should be able to strike the right balance in deciding...

The new joke on Dalal street is that gold prices are soaring, not because of increased demand in the US, India and China, but because Shilpa Shetty has bought half the gold in India for her wedding dress! Jokes apart, the yellow metal has hit headlines recently because of its spectacular rise. Prices have spiked as investors now prefer gold to the weakening US dollar. The US economy has lurched...

How much ground India conceded at the climate summit will depend on which of two sets of words packed in a single sentence of the Copenhagen Accord dominate in the negotiations ahead, experts have said. The Copenhagen Accord indicates that actions by developing countries to curb emissions of greenhouse gases would be open to interna tional consultations and analysis. India has in the past asserted — as articulated by environment...