Explore alternative energy sources, PM tells Govt amid West Asia crisis

With the crisis in West Asia and the blockade of the Strait of Hormuz straining energy supplies, Prime Minister Narendra Modi Thursday urged the Council of Ministers to urgently explore alternative energy sources, including a push for biogas as a substitute for LPG cooking gas.

Ebola watch: Govt defers Africa & big cat summits, alerts airports

With The World Health Organization declaring a new Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Uganda "a public health emergency of international concern", the government Thursday issued an advisory for travellers from "high risk countries" entering India. It also announced the postponement of the India-Africa Forum Summit and the first International Big Cat Alliance Summit which were to be held in New Delhi in the coming weeks. 

Wangchuk to take part in Ladakh talks today: Apex Body Leh to Govt

With talks between the Centre and representatives from Ladakh scheduled for Friday, the Apex Body Leh (ABL) has informed the Centre that climate activist Sonam Wangchuk will be part of its delegation.

This is the first time that Wangchuk, who was released after six months of preventive detention under the National Security Act (NSA) in March, would be part of the dialogue process. 

SC says courts can hear pending sedition cases provided the accused have no objection

Four Years after it directed that all pending trials, appeals and proceedings with respect to charges framed under IPC's sedition law be kept in abeyance, the Supreme Court on Thursday allowed courts to proceed with hearing of pending cases provided the accused have no objection to the same. 

Voice from Ladakh is not a demand for privilege, but an appeal to be trusted

The most troubling aspect of the present discourse is that the Centre itself repeatedly promised constitutional safeguards to Ladakh. Can promises made to frontier populations become expendable after elections?. 

At UNGA, incomplete climate justice

In July last year, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruled that countries are "obliged" to "prevent harm from climate change". The verdict has now received the imprimatur of the UN General Assembly. More than two-thirds of UN members, 141, voted in favour of the resolution on Wednesday; eight nations, including the US, said no and 28, including India, abstained. The resolution could change the tenor of the international climate debate - it strengthens the idea that mitigation measures cannot be founded on the principle of voluntarism. It gives vulnerable nations, particularly small island states -among the sponsors of the move-stronger diplomatic and legal grounds to demand action from major emitters. 

The fault line in India, US ties: America doesn't understand equal'

US President Donald Trump's visit to China may not be remembered by posterity as much as Richard Nixon's famous trip in 1972. But it has forced Indians to confront the parallels with what was hitherto considered the darkest chapter of the India-US relationship. 

US will eventually get Iran's enriched uranium: Trump

President Donald Trump vowed on Thursday that the US will eventually recover Iran's stockpile of highly enriched uranium despite comments from Iran that it will not hand over the material.

Iran is believed to possess about 900 pounds of highly enriched uranium, which Trump says was buried by US and Israeli airstrikes nearly a year ago.

No new dam in upper Ganga: The long road to 'consensus'

On Wednesday, the Union Government presented a 'consensus' view to the Supreme Court that it was not in favour of new hydroelectric projects (HEPs) on the Alaknanda and Bhagirathi Rivers, the headwater streams of the Ganga River.

The debate on damming the rivers was spurred by the 2013 Kedarnath disaster, which prompted the SC to order a scrutiny of existing and proposed projects in Uttarakhand, and freeze environmental and forest clearances for new HEPS.

What Russia-China ties mean for India's security

The 3,000-km cross-border Power of Siberia 1 pipeline transports natural gas from Eastern Siberia directly to northeastern China's Heilongjiang province.

The proposed 2,600-km Power of Siberia 2 pipeline stretches from the Arctic gas fields of Yamal to China through Mongolia. 

Why world's richest cricketing body is not covered under RTI Act

The constitutional foundation for the CIC's reasoning lies in the 2005 judgment in Zee Telefilms Ltd v. Union of India.

In that case, a broadcaster had challenged BCCI's control over telecast rights, arguing that the Board should be treated as "State" under Article 12.