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.
Attacks on water and sanitation facilities in conflict zones around the world are putting the lives of millions of children around the world in danger, and are a much greater threat than violence itself, warns the UN Children’s agency, UNICEF, in a report released on Tuesday
The COVID-19 pandemic “must be a turning point”, UN Secretary-General António Guterres said on Monday, urging countries to take bold decisions now to both end the crisis and build a safe and healthy future for all
UN blue helmets face an increasing number of attacks throughout the complex environments in which they work, the head of the organization’s peacekeeping operations told the Security Council on Monday
The Indian Army played a major role in evacuating civilians and United Nations personnel from Goma, North Kivu's capital after Mt Nyiragongo volcano erupted in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo on Saturday
The UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) on Friday launched a $164 million appeal for personal protective gear, together with COVID-19 testing and control equipment, to save lives amidst the deadly wave of infections that continues to sweep across South Asia
Humanity is “waging a war on nature”, threatening biodiversity loss, climate disruption and escalating pollution, the UN chief said on Friday
UN Secretary-General António Guterres on Friday urged the world’s richest economies to take a central role in ending the COVID-19 pandemic by stepping up support for vaccines for all people, everywhere
The creative and cultural industry has played an essential role the world over throughout the COVID-19 pandemic and deserve more support moving forward, the President of the General Assembly said on Friday
Improved Internet access and connectivity can do more than urban migration to provide better jobs and higher standards of living for the roughly 3.4 billion people living in rural areas, according to the latest World Social Report, published on Thursday
The UN High Commissioner for Refugees has appealed to the Government of the United States to “swiftly lift” the public health-related asylum restrictions that remain in effect at the southern border, and to restore access to asylum for the people “whose lives depend on it”
Although the world has made major progress toward a decade-long target for environmental protection areas, it has fallen far short on commitments regarding their quality, the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) and partners said in a report published on Wednesday
Iterating that no pretext can justify the killing of innocent civilians in Palestine, Bangladesh has called upon the UN Security Council (UNSC) to take up the issue of violence and breach of security in the Al-Quds Al-Shareef and the entire occupied land of Palestine state
The international community must do “all it can” to de-escalate the violence in Gaza and Israel which has left hundreds dead and injured, said the UN’s political affairs chief on Tuesday, calling on all those involved in the fighting to allow for the “intensification of mediation efforts”, which can also help stem a growing humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Stri
Under the leadership of the Government of Bangladesh, the Organization for Migration (IOM) and UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) launched a $943 million plan on Tuesday to “safeguard the well-being and dignity” of Rohingya refugees in the country and their host communities
As the world continues to tackle the multiple impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, from pushing some 131 million people into extreme poverty to reversing years of development progress, the UN chief said on Tuesday that a more coordinated approach is key to moving forward
