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.
The world community needs to turn its “words and rhetoric” into “actions” for a sustainable solution, Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina said underlining the urgency to resolve the Rohingya refugees issue at the same time warning that the delay would have “consequences” beyond her country’s borders and could “jeopardize” the collective security as refugees remain “prone” to extremists ideologies
India and its three allies in the quest for Security Council reform - Brazil, Germany and Japan - have called for a determined push for the adoption of a text for conducting the negotiations and to set a time-frame for the changes
Ghana President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has criticised European countries for not recognising the Indian-made Covishield vaccine, calling it a “retrogressive” step
Bangladesh – a country where the prime minister’s chair has alternated between two women over the past 30 years – has called upon the United Nations to lay special emphasis on forming a Women Leaders’ Network to act as a force to ensure gender equality
The Taliban has written a letter to the United Nations (UN), seeking a chance to address the ongoing UNGA session, and nominated its Doha-based leader, Suhail Shaheen, as their representative, the UN Secretary-General Office confirmed
There is no guarantee of survival for anyone nation in a world where the Maldives ceases to exist, the Maldives President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih said at the 76th session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA)
Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has again raised the Kashmir issue at the United Nations but his statement was much milder compared to those he made the previous two years
The global Covid pandemic has seen a rise in child marriages, teenage pregnancies, and gender-based violence, with young girls facing the worst of the conditions, a UN envoy said today
Assistance funds established to support Small Island Developing States (SIDS) need to be “adequate, predictable, and accessible”, Maldivian President Ibrahim Mohammed Solih said while underscoring the complexity involved in the process of accessing the assistance
US President Joe Biden said on Tuesday that the Quad alliance of India, the US, Japan and Australia has been "elevated" and declared that Washington will stand up for allies and friends
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Tuesday projected a gloomy prognosis for the world warning that it was on the “edge of an abyss” and called for immediate action to save it from the plethora of crises ranging from the Covid pandemic and climate change to inequality and polarisation
The annual parade of presidents, prime ministers, princes and potentates starts off on Tuesday in New York City when they meet in person and virtually at the United Nations General Assembly to grapple with global problems, promote their own agendas and engage in diplomacy
UN Secretary Genral Antonio Guterres has appointed Nobel Laureate Kailash Satyarthi as new Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) Advocate ahead of the start of the 76th UN General Assembly
It is the best time to pursue a truly transformative framework by prioritizing the goals, resetting targets with deadlines and setting the strategic actions to fruitfully implement SDGs and their gradual achievements, writes Dr. Mohammad Rezaul Karim for South Asia Monitor
With Afghanistan in an economic crisis, the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) has warned that 97 percent of Afghans could fall below the poverty line by mid-2022 unless the country's political and economic challenges are addressed promptly
