Seeking Reliance

The Andhra Pradesh government is giving forests that sustain tribal communities to the Reliance group of industries for plantations. That, too, …

Corporate wastelands

Tamil Nadu seems set to gift community land to corporates under the name of wasteland regeneration

UN launches 10 principles to close Asia-Pacific sustainable finance gap

Aimed at mobilising and deploying financing for key Sustainable Development Goals, particularly around climate action

Our cities need big funds to fight climate risks: World Bank

The COVID-19 pandemic added strain to cities’ finances in cities in developing countries; the disruption continues to make planning for …

Paris finance meet: What is the Summit for a New Global Financing Pact about?

Discussions on how to reform Multilateral Development Banks (MDB) to better serve the needs of the Global South will be in spotlight

COP27 diary (November 10): Rich countries admit funding gap in addressing loss & damage

A round-up of what went on at the Sharm El-Sheikh summit    

COVID-19 tanked India’s carbon emissions, but stimulus will drive them up again

The Rs 90,000-crore stimulus for power distribution companies fails to consider emissions reductions

What negotiations mean for least developed countries

They insist that loss and damage is a non-negotiable element of the Paris agreement

Swachh Bharat cess: A few states may not agree on it

Except Andhra Pradesh and Uttarakhand, no other state has directly agreed to the central proposal

Revamping US healthcare

US politicians and insurance companies claim to offer the best healthcare services in the world. Recently, however, top US experts have admitted …

Panchayats to spend Rs 1.42 lakh crore on water and sanitation

Spend 60% grant on water and sanitation: 15th Finance Commission recommends to rural local bodies  

Agriculture: wrong prescription for right diagnosis

Finance minister’s decision to increase farm credit corpus and give more autonomy to states for agriculture schemes unlikely to help farmers

Ban FDI in brownfield pharma, says Parliament standing committee

Panel raises alarm over continuing takeover of Indian generic drug firms by multinational companies

Question of safety

The Bangkok conference on the risks of genetically modified corps advocated greater investment of public funds in bio-safety research

Debt of emerging markets & developing economies rose by 178% from 2008-2022: Report

The Global South is staring at a debt crisis, but the “Common Framework” created to provide debt relief has serious shortcomings

Good scheme in bad health

A little known community monitoring scheme could prove handy for the new government, which is readying to revamp the country's healthcare system

A symbolic budget

While all the right words have been used in the budget, the programmes are neither well thought out nor given sufficient funds

Muted response

Hepatitis C is a growing problem in India, but government has no programme to manage the disease

Mission eclipsed

National solar mission may get derailed as banks hesitate to give loans for its high-risk projects

COP28 head calls for ramping up renewables, carbon capture and climate finance

Comments indicate a focus on abatement technologies at Dubai summit over fossil phase-out

G7 sets renewables target, no timeline for fossil fuel phase out

Gas investments and nuclear energy remain in play while urgent action is needed to phase out fossil fuels

Experts hail doubling of cess on 'dirty' coal

Money collected from the cess gets deposited in the National Clean Energy Fund but doubts remain over its usage

Raw Deal

Scepticism hangs over Kerala's Tribal Rehabilitation and Development Mission and its master plan

No absolute immunity for World Bank affiliate: US Supreme Court

In a historic decision involving Indian coal plant, US top court says World Bank affiliate can be prosecuted for environmental damages

Japan uses climate finance to lend $1 billion to Indonesia for dirty coal

Observers call for clear rules on climate finance to ensure money is not spent on projects that would cause climate change