The Congress has proposed the introduction of an RTI-like legislation exclusively for “corporate corridors”, floating what looks like a nascent idea at a time some industrialists have criticised the government after the leak of the Niira Radia tapes. The suggestion was made in the latest issue of the Congress mouthpiece Sandesh and released today at the plenary where Sonia made an anti-corruption drive the cornerstone of her speech. “The Right to Information...

75 farmers have lost their lives in Andhra Pradesh The Communist Party of India on MoNDAy asked the Centre to declare the loss of standing and harvested crops over 75 lakh acres across three States &NDAsh; Andhra Pradesh, Orissa and Tamil Nadu &NDAsh; as a national calamity and announce compensation for it. CPI general secretary A.B. Bardhan, in a letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, drew attention to the huge loss suffered...

Have the Cancun Agreements set Kyoto Protocol on a path to eventual death? No. Killing Kyoto would require a 2/3rd vote by the 180-plus member countries. There is too much guilt involved in that. But the Agreements have prepared the ground to render the Protocol hollow and meaningless - left to survive a vegetative, inconsequential life even as a new and unequal global regime takes ground. The Kyoto Protocol was...

Let's assess the outcome of Cancun in terms of what the world has achieved to avert climate change. We know the threat of a changing climate is real, we in India are most vulnerable and the world needs drastic emission reduction. Just think: to keep the world below 2 degrees Celsius temperature increase, global emissions must drop to 44 billion tonnes of CO2e (all greenhouse gases) by 2020. The world...

The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) is stepping up its efforts to ensure that gender, reproductive health and other population dynamics figure high on the ageNDAs of upcoming global environmental and sustainable development discussions. Agency officials met with representatives from 20 non-governmental organizations (NGOs) on Wednesday to build partnerships to advocate for the inclusion of these issues, with a special focus on the ageNDA of the “Rio+20” conference in 2012, a...