-The Telegraph The world's 197 nations have finalised a landmark pact in Rwanda's Kigali to combat global warming by phasing out industrial gases called hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) currently used in air-conditioners and refrigerators. The Kigali agreement gives India 10 years to prepare its industry to shift from HFCs to alternatives that are now expensive and could MEAn higher prices for consumers. "We were flexible, accommodative and ambitious," Union environment minister Anil Madhav Dave said...

-Business Standard Scheme to benefit close to 450 million workers, mainly in the unorganised sector  Stung by repeated resistance from trade unions and strikes, the Narendra Modi government plans to launch a massive social security coverage scheme which will benefit almost 450 million workers, mainly in the unorganised sector. In order to achieve this, the government will attempt to create a corpus through which the benefits will be provided. The benefits include...

-The Hindu The overcrowding of prisons in the country is a long-standing problem that is seldom addressed effectively. Even though the Supreme Court has, from time to time, raised the issue of prison reforms in general, and that of overcrowding in particular, MEAsures to decongest jails have been sporadic and half-hearted. The issue is once again in the news, with the Supreme Court bemoaning that prisons in Delhi and nine States...

-Livemint.com A World Bank report cautions that the urban poor will bear the brunt of losses if cities don’t become more resilient to natural disasters, shocks, and stresses New Delhi: By 2030, without significant investment into making cities more resilient, climate change may push up to 77 million more urban residents into poverty, said a new report released by the World Bank on Wednesday. The report ‘Investing in Urban Resilience’ by the World...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: India continues to have serious levels of widespread hunger forcing it to be ranked a lowly 97 among 118 developing countries for which the Global Hunger Index (GHI) was calculated this year. Countries worse than India include extremely poor African countries such as Niger, Chad, Ethiopia and Sierra Leone besides two of India's neighbours: Afghanistan and Pakistan. Other neighbours Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Nepal and China are...