The reactor that has now gone critical at Kalpakkam, on the Bay of Bengal coastline in Tamil Nadu, is not the end of that journey. It is, more precisely, the end of the beginning. The real test is whether India can now scale fast breeder capacity rapidly enough to make a material difference to its energy-mix building on the Kalpakkam template, the industrial supply chains it has validated, and the engineering confidence it has earned.
The Indus and the Ganges are dying slowly, and with them disappear species that evolved over thousands of years within these waters. If current patterns continue, future generations may inherit rivers that exist geographically but are biologically empty. South Asia still has an opportunity to reverse this trajectory, but only if environmental protection becomes a shared regional priority rather than an afterthought.
Climate migration isn’t just about the loss of land. It is about the loss of memory, culture and home. When people are driven out of the places where they were born, few things that matter are merely economic. Over the next decades, the world will confront a fundamental dilemma. Can humankind handle the climate crisis in a surer way? Or will the future consist of millions searching for a new place to call home?
The constraint on India’s expansion is fissile inventory, particularly between 2035-2045. At present, the breeder program depends on plutonium from a limited set of eight unsafeguarded reactors. Meanwhile, India has accumulated spent fuel from uranium imported for its safeguarded reactors. This significant plutonium is lying idle because we lack safeguarded reprocessing facilities.
Focusing on the Abrahamic faiths, Guterres said, “antisemitism, anti-Muslim bigotry, the persecution of Christians, racism and white supremacist ideology are on the march”, but left out the attacks on and threats faced by minorities belonging to religions like Hinduism, Sikhism and Bahaism.
For South Asia as a whole, the report said the region’s “economic outlook has significantly deteriorated due to high food and energy prices, monetary tightening and fiscal vulnerabilities” and it forecast a 4.8 per cent growth year and 5.9 per cent next year.
“The application of rule of law at the international level should protect the sovereignty and territorial integrity of States from aggression, including terrorism, and including cross border terrorism”, Kamboj said. The remarks were directed at Pakistan, but without mentioning it by name.
Guterres also brought up the issue of the international debt burden faced by some countries, notably Pakistan, which he called “a victim of the manmade disaster of a morally bankrupt global financial system”.
This month External Affairs Minister presided over two high-level meetings of the Council covered by India on reforming multinational organisations including the Council and on fighting terrorism, both of which have proved popular.
The complex situation in Myanmar requires “quiet and patient diplomacy”, Kamboj said. The welfare of the people of Myanmar is of “utmost priority” and at “the core of our efforts” there, she said.
India is pressing for Council reforms, which have stalled for decades, and lobbying for a permanent seat. As its president this month, India convened a ministerial-level meeting of the Council on reforming the UN which put a spotlight on the Council’s basic architecture of permanent membership mired in post-World War II geopolitics which has changed dramatically in 75 years.
Known as the Convention on Biodiversity, the agreement was announced after hectic negotiations early Monday towards the end of 15th UN conference on biodiversity in Montreal.
She said, “We the victims of 26/11 Mumbai attacks continue to wait for justice. As the sponsors of these dastardly attacks remain free even after 14 years. “Too many lives have been lost. Too many children have been orphaned”.
It is because about a decade ago when Sanaulah was a minister, Hillary Clinton who was visiting Pakistan warned him about terrorism and said that if you have snakes in your backyard, you can't expect them to bite only your neighbours because eventually, they will bite the people who keep them, Jaishankar said.
Before Jaishankar spoke, Anjali Vijay Kulthe, a nurse from Cama and Albless Hospital in Mumbai, told the Council about her face-to-face encounter with Pakistan-based terrorists on 26/11 and how she worked to save mothers, mothers-to-be and newborns at the medical centre.
“Recognizing that diversity is one of India’s greatest assets, he strove for harmonious relations between religions, cultures and communities”, Guterres added.
India is using its prerogative as the president of the Council – in the last month of its two-year elected membership – to take the long-delayed and contentious issue right to its chamber.
After abstaining, India’s Permanent Representative Ruchira Kamboj called the move a “mockery” of the UN sanctions on terrorist groups and warned, “Such exemptions must not facilitate 'mainstreaming' of terror entities in the political space in our region”.
“We don't need to be told what to do on democracy”, she said here on Tuesday when an Italian journalist raised the criticism that press freedom was being eroded in the country.
