Kalpakkam fast breeder reactor

India's Fast Breeder Reactor: A Civilisational Bet on Nuclear Self-Reliance and Sustainability

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. 

Dying Rivers, Disappearing Species: Zoological Cost of Pollution in Pakistan and India

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: The Next Global Humanitarian Crisis?

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?

India Should Scale up its Fast Breeder Reactor Program to Meet Rising Energy Needs

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. 

More on Climate, Sustainability and Energy

India retains top spot as fastest-growing major economy, says UN report, even as South Asia outlook deteriorates

South Asian countries faced risks from higher prices and shortages of farming inputs including fertilisers, it said. “This will probably result in weaker harvests and exert further upward pressures on food prices in the near term”, according to the WESP

Food security fears: US hopes India will drop restrictions on wheat exports; India assures ‘neighbors and vulnerable countries’

India, which is the world’s second-largest wheat grower and has a big stockpile, ordered an end to most purely commercial wheat transactions, while leaving room for some exports to neighbouring countries and governments of countries in need

Modi highlights traditional medicine's role in fighting Covid, says India vaccinated 90% of Indian adults

Giving a progress report on vaccinations, Modi said that India’s programme is the largest in the world hving fully vaccinated almost 90 per cent of the adult population, and more than 50 million children

India contributes USD 800,000 to expading Hindi language use at UN

While Hindi is yet to be one of UN’s official languages, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has made sure he uses the medium to promote the language on international platforms, including the UN

UN chief calls for dialogue to resolve Sri Lanka‘s crisis

“We've also been concerned about the recent violence against peaceful protesters, and we urge calm and restraint, as well as respect for democratic rights, including the right... the freedom of expression and the right to peaceful assembly”, the spokesman said

UNSC agrees for first time to issue anodyne statement appealing for peace in Ukraine

Guterres followed it up with his own statement: Today, for the first time, the Security Council spoke with one voice for peace in Ukraine.  As I have often said, the world must come together to silence the guns and uphold the values of the UN Charter”

'Dont patronise us': Diplomatic pushback by India; Dutch diplomat untweets 'advice' after Tirumurti riposte

Earlier at the Raisina Dialogue in New Delhi last month, Jaishankar had stated that India should engage the world on the basis of its confidence in its identity rather than trying to please the global community

UN food agency in talks with India on procuring wheat to meet global shortages; Pakistan named a food crisis country

Earlier this year, India began sending wheat to Afghanistan through the WFP via Pakistan after initial opposition from Islamabad. India has pledged 10 million tonnes of wheat donations to Afghanistan

All religious celebrations should take place peacefully: UN chief on India's communal violence

Guterres' appeal comes in the wake of reports sporadic community violence across many areas in India, including capital New Delhi, as Hindu and Muslim religious festivals overlapped in the last couple of weeks

Global food security threatened by Ukraine war: Countries to meet to review urgent humanitarian needs

Cooperation between the US and India on averting a food crisis figured in talks between the leaders of the two countries last month. India is sitting on a wheat stockpile estimated at about 100 million tonnes, far in excess of a safety net

Over 1,000 Indian peacekeepers get UN award for serving in South Sudan mission

The Indian contingent is also "well known, and beloved" for its frequent mobile veterinary clinics in different parts of Upper Nile State that provide veterinary services, which are otherwise rarely available to cattle owners, for cows, goats, donkeys, sheep and other animals in the country.

UNGA votes measure for making UNSC permanent members answer for vetoes; India calls for complete reform of UN structure

As a “double victim of colonialism,”  Guterres said, “Africa is underrepresented in decision-making processes, in most of the multilateral institutions. And so, I do believe that a stronger representation of developing countries in many areas, from the Bretton-Woods institutions (like the World Bank and International Monetary Fund) to the Security Council, would be an important reform”

UN refugee agency appreciates India's role in giving refuge to people fleeing Afghanistan, Sri Lanka, Myanmar and Tibet

"One of the first reasons that I wanted to come to India was the fact that India has a very long history of support for refugees. India opened its borders and it protected many people over many centuries," Triggs said

UN rights experts urge US to ease Afghan assets freeze

Since the Taliban takeover in Afghanistan last August, and the western sanctions that followed it, crippled the country’s economy and pushed millions back into poverty. Today, the country has the highest number of people, around 23 million, requiring urgent direct food assistance

UN condemns attacks at schools in Afghanistan

The ISKP, the regional branch of ISIS, is known for bombing mosques, community centers, and schools in the area. Last year, over 90 students were killed when an ISIS suicide bomber detonated himself in a girls’ school in the area