-Frontline A World Bank report on climate change warns that a warmer world will trap millions in poverty. "Much of the advance of European capitalists and other members of the European ruling class was at the cost of the colonised and enslaved peoples of Africa, Asia and Latin America," says Amiya Kumar Bagchi in his book "Perilous Passage: Mankind and the Global Ascendancy of Capital." Capitalist expansion following the Industrial Revolution involved...

-The Hindu     Genetically modified crops, whose ecological effects are irreversible, could become a mainstay of Indian agriculture thanks to collusion between the government and the biotech industry The final report of the Supreme Court-appointed Technical Expert Committee (TEC) on field trials of genetically modified crops is packed with revelations on what is wrong with institutional governance and regulation in India when it comes to GMOs (genetically-modified organisms). The report's release late last...

-The Telegraph A study on a globally endangered bird whose safety once prompted the defence ministry to scrap a surveillance set-up has called for stronger conservation efforts in its only home, an Andaman island, despite a "heartening" increase in numbers. The study on the Narcondam Hornbill, found only on the Narcondam island in Andaman and Nicobar, has emphasised the need to "minimise" habitat disturbance. The island has no human habitation, though it...

-The Hindustan Times After the political parties, now the Department of Atomic Energy has asked the government to keep it out of the Right to Information Act, saying the transparency law is in conflict with its international commitments which require "strict confidentiality." However, the DAE's demand for immediate exemption from the RTI Act through an official notification is unlikely to be accepted with the law ministry raising a red flag, citing the...

-The Hindu Chennai: The Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam will support the Food security Bill only if it does not infringe on existing rights of Tamil Nadu, said party leader M. Karunanidhi on Friday. In a statement here, he said the Centre should not impose its provisions on State governments, but should allow them to implement it depending on the situation existing in every State. "It is a constructive approach on the part of the...