India granted 'observer' status in Arctic Council

India has been granted the status of an observer in the Arctic Council, an organisation of global nations that coordinates Arctic policy. With the melting of Arctic ice, new waterways are emerging, creating opportunities for countries to tap the region’s so far inaccessible resources. There is growing competition over the untapped oil, natural gas, minerals and fish resources of the region.

India still scores low in human development in UNDP report

Over the past three decades, India has made good progress on the human development index (HDI), says the Human Development Report 2013, released by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). However, India’s rank out of 187 countries is no better than last year’s. With a HDI value of 0.554 and a rank of 136 among 187 countries, which it shares with Equatorial Guinea, India is placed in the “medium development” category. There has been steady improvement in its HDI value, which was 0.345 in 1980.

Will there be gas at the end of it?

If the United States has its way, the Iran-Pakistan gas pipeline will never happen. But with Iran claiming that it has completed the construction of 900 kilometres of the 1,150 km pipeline on its territory, the first ever gas flow by pipeline into South Asia looks to be a little more than possible.

Chinese suplex

Companies that mine rare earth elements, which power mobile phones and car batteries, keenly await the outcome of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s visit to Japan in mid-November. The two countries are likely to reach an agreement that would facilitate setting up of a rare earth-processing plant in India by Japanese auto giant Toyota Tsusho. This could open a new business chapter for both the countries.

Is Arctic rush worth it?

Desperate for gas

BAWANA IN NORTHWEST DELHI is a telling stop on India’s winding and elusive gas trail. About 35 km from the city centre, Bawana is where the Delhi government is setting up a 1,500 MW power plant that will meet a fifth of the capital’s voracious energy needs. The state-owned generating company, Pragati Power Corporation Ltd (PPCL), is forking out Rs 4,500-crore to set up this gas-fired plant in two modules of 750 MW each, the first of which has been ready for a while. However, despite severe power cuts in recent weeks, the plant has remained idle. There is no fuel to run it

Radioactive mirage

India's desperate pursuit of nuclear energy will be expensive and risky. Small wonder industry wants to dilute its liability

Democracy or dependance

NEPAD is a long shot but no one has come up with an alternative Together, the new African Union (au) and the New Partnership for Africa's Development (nepad) reflect a new imperative in Africa's international relations. Integration has replaced liberation as the continent's strategic goal. And for average Africans the material gains from integration could be greater than from liberation.

CoP-8: Nothing's brewing

It was a huge party. There were camels, horses and gaudily caparisoned elephants. Teams of sweating musicians belted out India's diverse ethnic notes; girls, perched atop plywood props designed to look like fortress towers, swayed and struck dance poses. There was food from Kashmir to Kanyakumari, turbaned waiters, false fountains and even a rickety wooden bridge across a shallow muddy pond.

What it takes to clean a river

Romantic Rhine Salmon returns to the Rhine after decades of absence from the "biggest sewer of Europe"