A global scramble for land and mineral resources fuelled by billions of investment dollars is threatening the last remaining wilderness and critical ecosystems, destroying communities and contaminating huge volumes of fresh water, warned environmental groups in London Wednesday. No national park, delicate ecosystem or community is off limits in the voracious hunt for valuable metals, minerals and fossil fuels, said the Gaia Foundation’s report, "Opening Pandora's Box". The intensity of the...

The Scheduled Castes and Tribes have been denied over one lakh crore rupees during the Eleventh Plan, says the National Campaign on Dalit Human Rights. Uttar Pradesh has been most efficient in the allocation and utilisation of the funds. During the Eleventh Plan period (2007-12), a whopping Rs 1,00,215 crore has been denied to Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes under the Sub-Plans of the Government, according to National Campaign on Dalit...

-PTI The country plans to have a nuclear power generation capacity of 63,000 MW in the next 20 years as atomic power is advantageous in terms of transportation and storage, Power Minister Sushilkumar Shinde said today. "India plans to have a total installed nuclear capacity of 63,000 MWe (megawatt electric) by the year 2032 both by indigenous technology and the imported reactors as additionalities," he said while addressing a seminar at India...

-Reuters   Global warming will get worse as agricultural methods accelerate the rate of soil erosion, which depletes the amount of carbon the soil is able to store, a United Nations' Environment Programme report said on Monday. Soil contains huge quantities of carbon in the form of organic matter. which provides nutrients for plant growth and improves soil fertility and water movement. The top metre of soil alone stores around 2,200 billion tonnes of...

India is readying to defend its policy requiring companies to source local content for the national solar mission project, a rule that has triggered protests from the US and the EU.  The commerce department is talking to the ministry of new and renewable energy on how to argue its case should the dispute reach the World Trade Organisation. The ministry is responsible for executing the Jawahar Lal Nehru National Solar Mission,...