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 what comes a major relief for Afghanistan, the World Bank has approved a decision transferring $1 billion from the frozen Afghanistan Reconstruction Trust Fund (ARTF) to United Nations' agencies and select international aid groups to support aid operations in the country gripped humanitarian crisis
India has offered to help evacuate citizens of neighbouring and other developing countries stranded in Ukraine but has said that efforts to evacuate its citizens from the war-hit country have been hampered by "adverse conditions" at the borders
Staying true to its traditionally neutral and nonaligned stand, especially on global issues outside its sphere of influence or core security interests, India abstained for the third time on a Security Council vote on Ukraine and said it welcomed the decision by Ukraine and Russia to hold talks
The United Nations Security Council is to meet on Sunday (early Monday India time) in a hastily convened session to vote on a resolution to convene an emergency meeting of the General Assembly to take up the Ukraine crisis
India has been assigned a key role in the US Indo-Pacific strategy which says it would "support India's continued rise and regional leadership". Now, ironically India has found itself alongside China in the Security Council balancing act
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet acknowledged Sri Lanka’s legal, institutional, and constitutional reforms, but added concerns remain about the lack of accountability in Sri Lanka after gross violations of human rights
India, along with China and the United Arab Emirates, abstained on a Security Council resolution condemning the Russian invasion of Ukraine
The UN resolution would be a test of India's position in a post-Cold War world that is quickly plunging into a new Cold War
As Russian President Vladimir Putin announced “special military operations” in Ukraine even as the Security Council was meeting in a late-night emergency session, India warned of a looming major crisis
India's statement was one of the mildest straddling the East and the West while most of the members roundly criticised Putin's actions
In what comes as huge relief to Afghan teachers, who remain unpaid for months, the United Nations children’s agency UNICEF has said it will pay a fixed stipend for two months to support them
Tirumurti expressed India's support for the Minsk Agreements and the Normandy format of diplomacy for finding a solution to the Ukraine situation
The United Kingdom will co-host next month an international aid conference for Afghanistan with the United Nations, British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss confirmed on Tuesday, as the UN seeks $4.4 billion, the largest the UN has ever sought for a single country for meeting the growing humanitarian needs
The lack of progress in the investigations involving the killings of journalists in Bangladesh highlights an “appalling and pervasive culture of impunity” in the country, the United Nations’ human rights monitors said, urging authorities to “conduct thorough, independent and effective investigations”
'There are no recent signs that the Taliban has taken steps to limit the activities of foreign terrorist fighters in the country', the UN report said
