After three days of deadlock, the United Nations climate talks here are moving again, propelled by a quickly approaching deadline, the prospect of 130 world leaders in the same city, and “sustained pressure” by major developing countries, including India. With less than 24 hours left before the end of the summit, negotiators are back to working on both the Kyoto Protocol and long-term action draft texts. In other encouraging signs for...

As one of its first steps towards reducing its greenhouse gas footprint, the United Nations – after one of the most wide-ranging and painstaking exercises in its history – announced today that it emits 1.7 million tons of carbon dioxide annually worldwide. That amount, more than half of which is generated by peacekeeping operations, represents just 3.3 per cent of emissions generated by New York City, the host city of...

Rajasthan had emerged as a model for transparency and accountability in NREGS implementation. Tragically, entrenched interests have been allowed to hijack the process.  Through the second half of October and for most of November this year, Rajasthan was engulfed in an unusual form of protest, spearheaded in the main by gram panchayat officials. Joined in some places by elected MLAs and MPs, and backed covertly by a section of District...

We Indians implicitly believe in India’s great past. Recently, that past has been given a statistical underpinning by Angus Maddison. To celebrate the beginning of the 21st century, Maddison wrote a book called The World Economy: A Millennial Perspective. There he says that India was the world’s largest economy in the first millennium AD. It produced one-third of the world’s income in the first century, and 29 per cent in...

Wants exclusion of tiger reserve area falling within its purview  Says construction of Dam will disturb the core habitat of wild animals Minister concerned at the ecological implications of project NEW DELHI: Minister of State for Environment and Forests Jairam Ramesh has asked the Centre to review the Ken-Betwa river-linking project in Madhya Pradesh in view of the ecological implications. In a letter to Union Water Resources Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal, Mr. Ramesh...