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.
In December, India launched the Group of Friends to promote accountability for crimes against peacekeepers with Bangladesh, Egypt, France, Morocco and Nepal as co-chairs. The group advocates for bringing to justice those committing crimes against peacekeepers.
The government has so far established more than 14,000 community clinics in public-private partnerships across the country to provide basic healthcare to the people.
The latest UN report cut the overall growth projects by 0.1 per cent for all of South Asia to 4.7 per cent this year and 5.8 per cent next year. The inflation rates for Pakistan and Sri Lanka are expected to be in the "double digits" due to the weakening of local currencies.
“Is the UNSC in its present form -- which denies permanent representation to entire continents of Africa, Latin America and the world’s largest democracy – can it be deemed to be ‘inclusive’”, Kamboj asked at an open debate at the Council.
Earlier, at the 30th Anniversary of the World Press Freedom Day Global Conference, New York Times Publisher A.G. Sulzberger got the criticism of India rolling, saying that “in India, authorities have raided newsrooms and treated journalists essentially as terrorists”.
The unanimous adoption of the Council resolution proposed by the United Arab Emirates and Japan and co-sponsored by about 90 countries underlines the Taliban regime’s international isolation and signals international unity before the Doha meeting.
The root cause in the view of India and many countries is the architecture of the Council that reflects the post-World War II scenario and gives veto-wielding permanent seats to the five victorious allies - Britain, China, France, the United States and Russia, which hold the seat originally given to the Soviet Union.
Lavrov said that the United States and the West were against a multipolar world and wanted their dominance to continue.
Pakistan’s Permanent Representative Munir Akram struck a discordant note by opposing the addition of permanent members to the Council. China's Permanent Representative Zhang Jun supported calls for reforming international financial institutions but was silent on the Council -- opposing it would have roiled the African nations that form the largest group at the UN.
There are about 4,000 Indian citizens in Sudan, and according to the Indian embassy in Khartoum of them, about 1,500 are longtime residents. An Indian ex-serviceman. Albert Augustine, who was working in Sudan, was killed by a stray bullet as he was speaking to his son while standing at the window of his apartment.
The challenges for India, she said, are “there's so many people that are in the informal labour market. Again, educational standards are highly uneven – if you go north to south, south to north in India, we see tremendous diversity within such a large country”.
Secret documents floating in social media and chat groups showed that the administration of President Joe Biden has been spying on UN officials as well as other international leaders, including US allies.
Indian officials have reported drones coming in from Pakistan to drop weapons and drugs for terrorists in Punjab and Kashmir. Last year till November, at least 22 such drones were reported captured by Indian agencies and 266 drone infiltrations were reported during the year.
China’s poor performance in the Statistical Commission election, securing only 19 votes and trailing South Korea was a surprise because of the extensive diplomatic and economic campaigns it has undertaken around the world.
India and the UN’s World Food Programme signed an agreement last month to provide Afghanistan with 20,000 tonnes of wheat that would be sent through the Chabahar port that India is developing in Iran near the Afghanistan border, bypassing Pakistan.
