India is all set to embark on exploration and other developmental activities pertaining to polymetallic sulphides in the Indian Ocean after a cabinet meeting chaired by Prime Minister Modi approved the signing of a contract between the Minister of Earth Sciences and the International Seabed Authority (ISA), that formalises India’s exclusive rights for exploration in the Central Indian Ridge, and South Wes
The ongoing drought conditions in India have affected 256 districts in 10 different states and more than 300 million people. Another figure quoted by the Minister of Rural Development and Minister of Drinking Water and Sanitation stand at 313 districts in 13 states. Acute water scarcity/stress in many parts of the country has resulted in severe distress in many ways, including loss of crop, farmer suicides and rural-to-urban migration.
On September 30, 2015 following an official request by the Syrian government for military assistance against the jihadist groups acting in the region, Russia decided to launch a fierce military campaign against ISIS positions in Syria. The objective was to hit the terrorist command and control centers, oil facilities, major hideouts, and deliver a sizeable advantage to the government forces acting on the ground to regain control over the lost territory. The intention of the exercise was to weaken the ISIS and its ability to generate revenue to sustain its operations.
India, being one of the most environmentally vulnerable countries, is incontrovertibly at the centre of various discourses related to impact of environmental changes on human security, conflicts driven or exacerbated by exploitation of natural resources, as well as the potential for promoting stability and peace through sustainable development and environmental cooperation. Integral to adelphi’s project – “Environment, Conflict and Cooperation” (ECC) – these issues have been dealt with at length on various occasions at various platforms.
At a time when migration has become one of the biggest challenges that the European Union confronts, the debate surrounding the role of environmental factors in fuelling conflicts in the Middle East and North Africa, causing migration, is gaining momentum. Ever since the Arab Spring erupted in 2010-2011, several studies have sprung up that link it to climate factors – affecting wheat production in countries such as Russia and China, leading to a spike in global wheat prices and in turn exacerbating the socio-political crisis in countries like Egypt.
The Indian states of Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh experienced the worst deluge during the months of November and December in 2015, due to freak weather conditions that developed in the Indian Ocean. On December 1, 2015 Chennai (Tamil Nadu’s capital city) received record 490 mm of rain over 24 hours.
Now that the much-awaited Paris (COP-21) Summit has come to an end with a broad consensus on the post-2020 – termed a historic breakthrough – the next steps towards planning and implementation would be taken in an incremental fashion. Amidst fears of derailment of talks due to differences between the developed and developing countries, the least developed and island nations played a crucial role in pressing hard their demands and making sure that an agreement is reached.
Environmental securityis a much-debated concept that is yet to be integrated completely with security studies due to theoretical, analytical, methodological and contextual disagreements over the interconnectedness between environmental issues and security. Though environmental security is a border-less issue that affects everyone across the globe, the perspectives on the concept are contextual and shifting.
On 2 December 2015, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has released its final assessment on past and present outstanding issues regarding Iran’s nuclear program.[1] The agency finds no “credible indication of diversion of nuclear material” and “based on all the information available to the Agency relating to nuclear material acquisition…the agency has not found indications of an undeclared nuclear fuel cycle in Iran, beyond those activities declared retrospectively by Iran.”
India is all set to host the first ever SAARC (South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation) disaster management exercise – called the South Asian Annual Disaster Management Exercise (SAADMEx) – between November 23 and 26.
