-The Hindu Denying basic amenities to residents of ‘unrecognised' slums is an affront to their dignity; resettling them fails to address their concerns and is unviable financially Since 2005, the Central government has given significant amounts of money to the States to improve conditions for the country's urban poor, first under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM) and more recently through the slow-moving Rajiv Awas Yojana (RAY). Unfortunately, very few...

-The United Nations The specialized cancer agency of the United Nations World Health Organization (WHO) announced today that outdoor air pollution is a leading environmental cause of cancer deaths. An evaluation by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) Monographs Programme found there is sufficient evidence that exposure to outdoor air pollution causes lung cancer and increases the risk for bladder cancer. In a news release, the IARC pointed out that air...

-The Economic Times It is ironical that food inflation surged to around 18% in August when agriculture is the primary hope in the economy. The culprit was mainly vegetables and, within that, onions. Onions are once again in the news due to steep rise in retail prices by almost 25% in a fortnight. Safal outlets in Delhi have set the price at Rs 60 per kg whereas some other retailers are charging...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: There is more certainty than ever before that earth is warming under "human influence", said a report compiled by the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), warning that only "substantial and sustained reduction" of greenhouse gas emissions will limit the disaster of climate change. IPCC raised the likelihood of human activities causing global warming from "very likely" in its 2007 report to "extremely likely" -...

-The United Nations Wider use of available best practices and technologies could help reduce greenhouse gas emissions from the livestock sector by as much as 30 per cent, according to a new study released today by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). The report, "Tackling climate change through livestock: A global assessment of emissions and mitigation opportunities," represents the most comprehensive estimate to date of livestock's contribution to global warming,...