India maintains a separation between civilian and military nuclear programmes and remains outside the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). Consequently, the PFBR is not under International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) safeguards.
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.
If India and China choose collaboration by setting aside strategic suspicion in the climate domain, they could fundamentally reshape the trajectory of the 21st century, as they have already demonstrated individually through their pursuit of clean energy over the past decade. More importantly, such a coalition could revive the COP28 fossil-fuel phase-down pledge, which stalled at COP29 in Baku and appears to be drifting further at COP30 in Belém.
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.
For the first time in two decades, the number of children being put to work has risen to 160 million worldwide, representing an increase of 8.4 million over four years, while millions of others are at risk due to the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a new UN report launched on Thursday
A group of UN independent human rights experts called on Wednesday for the leaders of the world’s largest economies to ensure equal access to COVID-19 vaccines for people in the Global South, urging them not to allow the profit motive to undermine global health and equity
Maldivian Foreign Minister Abdulla Shahid, the president-elect of the 76th session of the UN General Assembly, has appointed India’s Deputy Permanent Representative to the UN Ambassador K Nagaraj Naidu as his Chef de Cabinet
UNICEF has expressed deep concern over the death of three children, age 10 to 16, who were reported killed in the detonation of a landmine in South Waziristan, one of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Merged Districts (KPMD) along the Afghan border, on Tuesday
From David Beckham to Whoopi Goldberg and Angelique Kidjo, Ambassadors for the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and other agencies, have signed an open letter to the upcoming G7 Summit of world leaders, underscoring the urgency of supplying vaccine donations now
Ending the “war on nature” must be part of global recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic, UN Secretary-General António Guterres said on Tuesday in his message for World Oceans Day
Even though COVID-19 cases and deaths have declined in recent weeks, the world is facing a “two-track pandemic”, the UN’s top health official said on Monday in his ongoing campaign to get more vaccines to developing countries
During the last decade, more people around the world have gained access to electricity than ever before
The UN Security Council on Tuesday recommended Antonio Guterres, who is running unopposed, for a second term as the Secretary-General ensuring his re-election
In an electoral battle of two South Asian countries, Maldives Foreign Minister Abdulla Shahid has defeated Afghanistan's nominee to become the next president of the UN General Assembly
United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26) president-designate Alok Sharma has highlighted the importance of the Sundarbans, the world's largest mangrove forest spread over neighboring nations India and Bangladesh, saying it plays a significant role as a carbon sink
Heads of Government, religious leaders, activists and artists joined the United Nations on Friday in a rallying cry to heal the planet, launching the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration
Some two billion doses of COVID-19 vaccine have been distributed globally but only 0.5 per cent have reached low-income countries where frontline health workers and the elderly have yet to receive a shot, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Friday
A high-level UN delegation, which had recently visited Bangladesh, appreciated PM Sheikh Hasina-led government over the Bhasan Char rehabilitation project of the Rohingyas and sought the international community's support to ensure the refugees live there with dignity
With factors contributing to transnational corruption becoming increasingly complex, the UN launched an initiative on Thursday to “empower all countries” to find practical solutions and better tools to track, investigate and prosecute the scourge
