This paper presents a status report of the BRICS nations (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa) on two crucial development parameters—inequality and poverty—that have a significant bearing on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs; especially SDG-1 and SDG-10). The paper tracks the origins and movements of absolute and relative poverty, …
Plant’s imminent connection to the grid cited as an example of robust civil nuclear cooperation. With the agreement on the supply of two more Russian reactors to the Kudankulam nuclear power project stumbling over liability concerns, both India and Russia on Monday seized on Unit 1’s imminent connection to the …
ICAO agrees to put in place by 2020 a market-based system to curb carbon emissions from airlines India, along with countries like China, Russia and the US, scored a diplomatic victory in the aviation sector. The UN body in charge of civil aviation, International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO), made it …
It’s not just the US, France and Russia that have a problem with India’s nuclear liability law. The Indian nuclear industry has asked Department of Atomic Energy (DAE) to ensure the law’s provisions do not apply to their supplies for nuclear reactors, marking the first clear domestic opposition to the …
A global mechanism that could cut airlines' carbon emissions from 2020 has been supported by the International Civil Aviation Organisation's (ICAO) 191 member countries. The deal was reached at the ICAO's annual assembly in Montreal on Friday, where countries agreed on a comprehensive strategy to progress technology, operations and alternative …
Bangladesh moved one step ahead towards nuclear power generation as Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina unveiled the foundation of Rooppur Nuclear Power Plant (1st Phase) project here on Wednesday. "It's my belief that the Russian Federation would follow international standards in every stage of Rooppur NPP implementation and also provide Bangladesh …
Freedom on the Net 2013 is the fourth report in a series of comprehensive studies of internet freedom around the globe and covers developments in 60 countries that occurred between May 2012 and April 2013. Over 60 researchers, nearly all based in the countries they analyzed, contributed to the project …
The International Monetary Fund can play a role in protecting the planet from environmental damage, IMF head Christine Lagarde said on Tuesday, as she highlighted how an analysis of the harmful effects of energy subsidies could act as a catalyst for action. Lagarde's speech at the United Nations on Tuesday …
The European Union signaled it will defend its right to continue a limited carbon market for airlines until 2020 under a deal being discussed at a meeting of the International Civil Aviation Organization. Negotiators from more than 190 states are at the United Nations agency’s triennial general assembly in Montreal …
External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid on Thursday said the government will not sign any nuclear contract with the U.S. that was against national interest. Reacting to a report in The Hindu about the Attorney General’s recent opinion that Indian nuclear operators could waive their right of recourse against a foreign …
The government's effort to find an honourable way around the constraint of the nuclear liability law without actually violating it ran into rough weather on Thursday with the opposition accusing it of seeking to dilute the law for the sake of US and other foreign suppliers. The opposition seized upon …
Some parts of nature and human society are more vulnerable than expected to climate change, according to a draft of a U.N. report that adds a new purple color to a key diagram to show worsening risks beyond the red used so far. It says "unique and threatened systems" like …
Leaders attending the Group of 20 summit of the world's biggest economies in St. Petersburg, Russia, agreed on Friday to phase down the use of certain potent greenhouse gases known to damage the climate. The White House cited the agreement to cooperate on phasing down the use of hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), …
St Petersburg : While China will contribute the lion’s share of the $100-billion currency reserve fund, to be set up by the BRICS nations to fight currency shocks in the event of an early taper of stimulus by the US Federal Reserve, no timelines have been set by which the …
MOSCOW: Greenpeace accused Russia on Monday of trying to block its protest against offshore drilling in the mineral-rich but ecologically fragile Arctic after Russian coastguards boarded its vessel. The environmental lobby group said Russian officials boarded its icebreaker after activists with banners reading "Save the Arctic" piloted motor boats toward …
Fewer than 500 Amur tigers (Panthera tigris altaica) remain in the wild. Due to low numbers and their solitary and reclusive nature, tiger sightings across their range in the Russian Far East and China are rare; sightings of sick tigers are rarer still. Serious neurologic disease observed in several wild …
The Supreme Court of India has not yet granted permission for commissioning the Koodankulam nuclear power plant in Tamil Nadu, as its judgment on 6 May 2013 makes obvious. But unfortunately it does not seem to have paid serious attention to concerns raised by the former chairperson of the Atomic …
The National Institute of Virology's unit in Kerala has detected and confirmed through full genome sequencing the evidence of a new strain of West Nile Virus (WNV) and its association with human cases in India. The virus, transmitted to people through the bites of infected mosquitoes, can cause a fatal …
DHAKA : Prime Minister sheikh Hasina on Wednesday said that the government will complete the construction of Rooppur Nuclear Power plant in due time. She stated this while presiding over the 3rd meeting of the national committee on Rooppur Power Plant Project held at her office, reports UNB. PM’s Press …
Under attack for not cracking down on the use of tiger body parts in traditional medicine, China has finalized two separate agreements with India and Russia to step up protection of tigers and other endangered species, the state-media reported on Tuesday. China reached an agreement with India at a meeting …
The world suffered unprecedented climate extremes in the decade to 2010, from heatwaves in Europe and droughts in Australia to floods in Pakistan, against a backdrop of global warming, a United Nations report said on Wednesday. Every year of the decade except 2008 was among the 10 warmest since records …
