The new year begins for India on a note of achievement as far as our international relations go and also significant success in checkmating the designs of an adversary next door -- the Pak Army-ISI combine -- who had been relentless in pursuing their proxy war against India using cross-border terrorism as its principal weapon. The present regime in India has been notably smooth in securing for the country a newfound recognition as a world power known to be actively contributing to global peace and economic advancement with a forthright approach of opting for bilateral relations based on mutual economic and security interests. Consolidation of our dealings with SAARC, growth of a strategic partnership with the US and Japan to work for the maritime freedom in the Indo- Pacific region and the security of the Indian Ocean in the backdrop of aggressive manoeuvres of China there and the convergence struck by India with the democratic world in general and US in particular against the rise of 


Concerns on internal security (Column: IANS Insight-Spy's Eye)


IANS Automatic

With the rapid urbanisation and growing energy consumption in India, the trend of higher demand for urban housing and energy is here to stay. While urban residential real estate has seen a slight improvement of late and commodity prices have subsided from the highs of 2018, both housing and energy sectors will need renewed attention going forward especially to avoid future market failures.


Housing & energy: Avoiding market failure to boost growth (Column: Behind Infra Lines)


After the surprising state assembly results of Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan, the upcoming interim Budget is quite unlikely to be a traditional vote-on-account.


Reform arcane agricultural policies to resolve farmers' distress (Column: Active Voice)


National Girl Child Day is observed every year on January 24 to celebrate girl children and to bring the focus on issues like skewed sex ratio, female foeticide, child marriage, education, health and safety of the girl child, unequal treatment and gender disparities.


How Children in Bengal's Bardhaman are becoming catalysts of change (January 24 is National Girl Child Day)


New Delhi, Jan 20 (IAMS) Mauritius Prime Minister Pravind Jugnauth arrived here on Sunday on a nine-day visit to India during which he will be the chief guest at the Pravasi Bharatiya Divas (PBD), the January 21-23 Indian diaspora conclave to be held in Varanasi.


Mauritius PM in India for diaspora conclave


Where does the burden of proof lie, with who? That is the question when it comes to the celebrities and the media and, of course, the person who wakes up after years and ages to accuse a celebrity or a coworker of misdemeanor, like molestation or even rape?


#MeToo strikes where virtue means lack Of opportunity (Column IANS Insight: B-Town)


The Age of Information that set in with the success of IT revolution some three decades ago pushed the world economy and cross-border human interactions up in a transformational manner and established globalisation as a new reality.


Social media as an instrument of combat (Column IANS Insight-Spy's Eye)


Kolkata, Jan 18 (IANS/Mongabay) Indias national aquatic animal, the endangered Gangetic river dolphin (Platanista gangetica gangetica), is rarely visible in the waterways of the Indian Sundarbans. A study sheds light on the rise in salinity in the water and reduced freshwater flow for the mammals disappearing act in the iconic estuarine habitat.


Gangetic river dolphins in the Indian Sundarbans struggle with swelling salinity


There is a striking similarity between Paris Climate Agreement and Indias National Clean Air Programme (NCAP) launched recently.  The Paris Agreement is an agreement by the countries to map a global action to keep global warming two degrees centigrade below pre-industrial level.


National Clean Air Programme should set higher targets (Comment)


As per capita incomes in India move higher and as we converge towards $2,000 per capita, it would be interesting to look at the potential investment opportunities as the next phase of income growth begins.


India rising: Investment opportunities with higher incomes (Column: Behind Infra Lines)


The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) has reported that India is on the verge of becoming a highly water-stressed country. At this stage, reducing wastewater generation and water recycling should be given due importance. Reuse of industrial wastewater has been in practice for a long time in India, and this water is mainly used for agriculture purposes in nearby areas. However, this has led to high levels of heavy metal concentration in vegetables grown with industrial wastewater.


Bio-adsorbents: Cost-effective option for ridding industrial wastewater of heavy metals (Comment)


New Delhi, Jan 15 (IANS/Mongabay) The Indian government has unveiled its long-awaited National Clean Air Programme (NCAP) that aims at a 20-30 percent reduction of particulate matter (PM) concentration over the next five years, with an overall goal of mitigating air pollution and improving air quality in the country, which has some of the world's most polluted cities.


India's plan to breathe easy is out, but targets are not legally binding


Both China and India started building their national education systems under comparable conditions in the late 1940s. Different policies and historical circumstances have, however, led them to different educational outcomes, with China outperforming India not just in terms of its percentage of literate population and enrollment rates at all levels of education, but also in terms of number of world-class institutions in higher education, and greater research output.


India needs to improve its educational outcomes to catch up with China (Column: Active Voice)


New Delhi, Jan 12 (IANS/Mongabay) Groundwater in over 25,000 habitations across India is contaminated with excess arsenic and fluoride levels. To address the issue, a parliamentary committee has now asked the Union Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation (MDWS) to devise a time-bound plan to achieve the target of supplying clean drinking water to the contaminated areas.


Time-bound plan needed to address contaminated water (Feature)


Chennai, Jan 11 (IANS/Mongabay) "When some visitors ask, 'How do the birds know this lake is full?', I simply tell them that I telephone the migratory birds and inform them," said Ramesh mockingly as he sits at the tip of a lake in south India.


Vaduvoor: A tiny village luring and feeding global birds (Feature)


There is a general refrain from parents that their children are spending too much time with their smartphones -- chatting, SMSing or being on social media. Besides neglecting their studies, parents contend the children are being exposed to bad influences from webosphere. All of this has happened in the last 10-15 years and is being fuelled by the availability of communication technology like smartphones and the internet.


Children must be taught discipline of using communication technology (Comment)


The renewable energy sector in India has been dynamic in the last two decades, and especially over the last few years, with ambitious targets. That said, recent bottlenecks the sector has faced suggest that businesses in the sector require to focus on creating "economic moats" to enable the next phase of growth.


Renewable energy: 'Economic moats' to drive further growth (Column: Behind Infra Lines)


Even the most optimistic estimates cannot deny that in all likelihood, the world economy will grow at a slower pace in 2019 than it did in the previous year.


Future prospects for the economy don't seem promising (Column: Active Voice)


Kader Khan rose from the depths of a Dickensian childhood in the Bombay of the 1940s, surrounded by drug peddlers, prostitutes, pimps and assorted thugs to eventually embody the essence of Hindi cinema.


Kader Khan: From a Dickensian childhood to embodying essence of Hindi cinema (Tribute)


During the recent past, there have been a number of publications, discussions and meetings about the possibility of a large magnitude earthquake in the Himalayas that have left most people with a deep sense of apprehension.


Seismic warning signals a common man can spot (Comment)


Events of the year that has just gone by have underscored once again the stark fact that independent and sovereign statehood is the ultimate currency of power. The patronage of distant powers, the generosity of international institutions and notions of religious solidarity have all proved to be poor substitutes for the exercise of state power.

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