In a historic step that may reshape decision and policy-making towards sustainable development, the United Nations adopted a new framework on Thursday that includes the contributions of nature when measuring economic prosperity and human well-being
Months Ahead of the Monsoon: Can AI Give Us an Earlier Warning About El Niño?
AI may genuinely extend the horizon over which seasonal climate risk can be estimated. For communities across South Asia living under the influence of the monsoon, a longer view could mean the difference between a farmer adjusting her planting in time and a family receiving a flood warning too late to act.
Livelihoods, Employment and Environmental Management in South Asia’s Hilly Regions: Lessons from ADB’s New Investment in Bangladesh
The broader lesson for South Asia is equally important. Hilly regions cannot be developed simply by transferring lowland infrastructure models into mountainous terrain. Investment has to respond to local economic systems, geography and environmental risks.
Ethanol, AI and Agriculture: India's Triangular Chokehold Centred on a Depleting Resource
The UN's 2026 report warns that “long-term water use has exceeded renewable inflows and safe depletion limits,” leaving some water supplies beyond recovery. As the world’s largest groundwater extractor, India sits at the centre of this reckoning
South Asia’s Carbon Opportunity Is Bigger Than Credits
The larger economic choice for South Asia is therefore broader than whether to participate in carbon trading. The region can remain primarily a supplier of relatively inexpensive mitigation outcomes, or it can also develop the technology, professional capacity, financial products and verification systems that determine what those outcomes are worth.
More on Climate, Sustainability and Energy
‘Everyone’s looking to India’: India's vaccine leadership, recovering growth, help world overcome pandemic: IMF chief economist
As India recovers from the onslaught of the COVID-19 pandemic, its leadership in vaccine production and its growth projection of 11.5 per cent will have an important role in helping the world overcome the pandemic, Gita Gopinath, the chief economist of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) said on Monday
Bangladesh's per capita food wastage most, India the least in South Asia
A Bangladeshi annually wastes 65 kg of food, finds a report by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), a Nairobi-based organization
Pakistani ploy to turn UN counter-terrorism efforts into justification for terror
Pakistan is attempting to turn UN's counter-terrorism efforts into justification for terrorism
UN to monitor Covid-19 vaccine roll-outs in countries in humanitarian crisis
The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) has launched a new element of a data tool focusing on the roll-out of COVID-19 vaccines in countries experiencing humanitarian emergencies, said the office
India's murukku diplomacy: Unanimous support for resolution to promote Year of Millets
India's murukku diplomacy got unanimous support in the 193-member UN General Assembly for its resolution to designate 2023 as the International Year of Millets to promote the healthy foodgrains in a world facing both malnutrition and unhealthy diets
Anti-Muslim hatred has reached 'epidemic proportions' says UN rights expert
Institutional suspicion and fear of Muslims and those perceived to be Muslim has escalated to epidemic proportions, the Human Rights Council heard on Thursday
UN Development Programme urges temporary basic income for women hit hard by COVID fallout
The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) has called for temporary basic income for millions of the world’s poorest women, to help them cope with effects of coronavirus pandemic and alleviate the economic pressures they face every day
UNICEF to deliver first shipment of COVAX vaccines to Sri Lanka
UNICEF will deliver the first shipment of 264,000 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine on 7 March as part of the first allocation of the 1.44 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines from the COVAX Facility to the Ministry of Health
UN rights chief urges transparent probe into Bangladesh writer’s death
The UN's top human rights official on Monday called for transparent investigation into the death in custody of a writer in Bangladesh, who was held in pre-trial detention for nine months for publishing an article and sharing social media posts critical of the Government’s COVID-19 response
UNHCR, Japan sign $10m deal to improve water supply for Rohingya communities in Cox's Bazar
The Japanese government and UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, have signed an agreement to provide around $10 million to support the improvement of water supply and distribution systems for Bangladeshi host communities and Rohingya communities in Teknaf upazila of Cox’s Bazar
China backs Sri Lanka, calls UNHRC resolution 'interference' in 'internal affairs'
Backing Sri Lanka in the ongoing 46th session of the United Nations Human Rights Commission (UNHRC), China strongly criticized the “politicization” of human rights, and lashed out at the UNHRC for, what it called, the 'open interference' in countries’ internal affairs
Myanmar’s envoy to UN dramatically defies military regime, denounces coup
In a dramatic show of defiance Myanmar's Permanent Representative Kyaw Moe Tun has denounced his country's military regime before the UN General Assembly and declared he would fight for democracy
Indian environment expert Ligia Noronha appointed UN Assistant Secretary-General
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has appointed Indian environment and economics expert Ligia Noronha as an assistant secretary-general and the head of the United Nations Environment Programme's (UNEP) New York office
UN charter doesn’t allow use of force: Pakistan to UNSC
Hours before India and Pakistan issued the joint statement announcing strict observance of the 2003 ceasefire agreement, Pakistan’s permanent representative to the UN Munir Akram conveyed a message to UNSC reminding that the UN charter doesn’t allow the use of force to prevent ‘future’ and ‘anticipatory attacks.’
