There has been much ado over the neutral expert’s verdict on the Baglihar Hydel Project (BHP). For over sixteen years, the 450 Mega Watt (MW) BHP on the Chenab River in Doda district of Jammu and Kashmir has been the bone of contention between India and Pakistan. After holding five meetings – in Paris, Geneva, London, Paris & Washington; visiting the project site including its hydraulic model at Roorkee University and examining the written and oral submissions made by both parties, the final report of the neutral expert has given the BHP the ‘go ahead’.

Providing access to safe drinking water to all is being the prime target of each country’s development goal as prescribes by the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). The contentious issue is who will provide this basic service- public or private.

With a growing economy, an increasing population, India’s energy demands is mounting. The household sector is the largest consumer of energy in India, accounting for 40-50 percent of the total energy consumption in the country. In rural areas, the domestic sector accounts for nearly 80 percent of total energy consumption. It has been estimated that with the current rate of consumption, India would require over 450 million tones of coal, 94 million tones of oil and 220 million units of electricity by 2006 to sustain its energy needs.

The eastern Indian state of Orissa will turn to a mass of barren and desert like lands in another 150 years, warned Water Initiatives Orissa (WIO). This is an alarming finding considering that the whole world is observing this year as the year of deserts and desertification with the theme, "Let's stop dry lands from turning deserts". Desertification is a process of productivity loss of lands. When severe, it leads to permanent damages.

The World’s biggest economies set to prepare massive investment in nuclear energy. The most elusive energy, which was discarded in 1992 Earth Summit as ‘not safe and sound’ energy, has been touted as the best alternative for the energy-crunch world in recently concluded Group of Eight (G- 8) Summit meeting at St. Petersburg, Russia. After shock waves of Three Miles and Chernobyl accidents, the nuclear energy is back to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions, the root cause of climate change.

India is becoming a graveyard for the dying ships. And so it is, for the workers of the shipyards too. Ship breaking is also environmentalists’ nightmare. Toxic materials, most of which are highly hazardous, are dumped in the ship-breaking yards of India. The most tragic part of the story is the fate of the workers who are facing fatal occupational hazards. Not to forget, India is the one of the six surviving ship-breaking nations in the world, along with China, Bangladesh, Turkey, Pakistan and Myanmar.

Shift in global energy matrix in favour of hydrocarbons has posed many serious issues including environmental concerns. It is precisely out of the adverse consequences that Natural gas has been accepted as the preferred fuel for the present century. Unlike other fossil fuels it is one of the cleanest, safest, and most useful of all energy sources.

The unprecedented destruction caused by Tsunami waves on December 26 last year, is not only a rare phenomenon for Indian Ocean countries, but it is also unique as it witnessed intense diplomatic maneuvering in the name of aid. The aid flowing from donor countries carry not only humanitarian assistance but are also seen as a diplomatic tool used to further their foreign policy objectives. The first move in this regard was made by India while coping with the disaster on its eastern shores. It is interesting to note that despite suffering loss of almost 15,000 lives and need for Rs.

The impending danger of bursting of an artificial lake/dam on the Pareechu River in the Tibet Autonomous Region of People’s Republic of China has been subsided. Indian government, policy makers and security analysts were on tenterhooks till the danger was hovering over their head. The situation was in fact no less serious that the traditional military threat emanating from across the frontiers.