-The Telegraph Calcutta: A recent report by the United Nations Environment Programme has suggested that the Paris Agreement would fail to restrict the global temperature rise within 2°C, as agreed at the Paris climate summit of 2015. It says that even if all the countries fully meet their commitments to cut emissions as expressed in their respective "nationally determined contributions"' (NDCs) in Paris, it would address "approximately one-third of the emissions reductions"...

-The Hindu Member nations have basis of agreement: UNCTAD official An agreement on elimination of ‘harmful’ fisheries subsidies is likely to be the only major outcome at the forthcoming meeting of the World Trade Organisation’s (WTO) highest decision-making body called the ‘Ministerial Conference’, according to the head of the principal United Nations (UN) agency handling issues related to trade, investment and development. On what could probably be among the ‘deliverables’ at the WTO’s...

-Newsclick.in Crucial elements of the data on Jan Dhan Yojana have been removed from the government website. This gives rise to many questions. On 15 August 2014, Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched the Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana (PMJDY) scheme with the claimed objective of nation-wide financial inclusion. In his speech, he stated that the initiative was aimed at eradicating ‘financial untouchability’ by opening at least one bank account per household in...

-Livemint.com In India, 9 million people left farming between 2001 and 2011 largely due to distress, not because industry invited them, says Shyam Khadka, India’s representative at the FAO Shyam Khadka, India’s representative at the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations, says more Indians are moving out of agriculture due to distress and not because the manufacturing sector is inviting them. In an interview, Khadka calls for converting food...

-IndiaClimateDialogue.net In north Bihar, where floods devastate standing crops with increasing regularity in an era of climate change, a marginalised community is fighting all odds to protect an indigenous flood-resistant variety of rice. Sahorwa village is caught between the embankments of two major rivers in north Bihar. Between the Kosi river’s western embankment and Kamla Balan river’s eastern embankment, this village of 110 Musahar families remains flooded for seven to eight months...