Sundarbans

Sundarbans' Sand Mafia and its Sinking Delta: Illicit River Mining, Ecological Collapse, and Climate Migration in the Ganges-Brahmaputra Delta

While the rising sea level and warming oceans are undeniably a part of the crisis in the Sundarbans, other factors are also in play. It's a tale of criminal enterprise, regulatory failure and violent dispossession of some of the world's most vulnerable people.

India is Europe’s Energy Shock Absorber: Its Refineries are at Heart of Global Energy Stability

India is not merely a buyer of cheap oil from Russia or an exporter of refined fuels to Europe. India is a system stabiliser, ensuring the flow of oil in the world market in the context of economic necessity as well as geopolitical compulsions. India ranks among the top five refining nations globally. 

How European Green Laws Are Reshaping Regional Trade and Industrial Development

European green laws represent a major shift in the relationship between trade and environmental sustainability. For South Asia, they create both risks and opportunities. While compliance costs and market access challenges are real, these regulations can also accelerate the region's transition towards greener and more resilient economic development. The long-term success of South Asian economies will depend on their ability to integrate sustainability into industrial growth strategies while ensuring that environmental goals complement, rather than hinder, broader development objectives.

Of Judges, Protesters and Cockroaches: The Household Pest's Little-Known Role in Maintaining a Sustainable Planet

India's Gen Z seeks opportunity, purpose and impact. The cockroach's greatest lesson is not survival but service—quietly sustaining ecosystems through recycling, resilience and adaptation. As young people lead the journey towards sustainability and Net Zero, the question is not whether they are cockroaches, but whether they will learn from them.

More on Climate, Sustainability and Energy

Quad partnership 'elevated'; US will defend allies against attack, says Biden

US President Joe Biden said on Tuesday that the Quad alliance of India, the US, Japan and Australia has been "elevated" and declared that Washington will stand up for allies and friends

UN chief Guterres warns world on 'edge of abyss'; but GA President Shahid sees ‘rays of hope’

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Tuesday projected a gloomy prognosis for the world warning that it was on the “edge of an abyss” and called for immediate action to save it from the plethora of crises ranging from the Covid pandemic and climate change to inequality and polarisation

Afghanistan, covid pandemic, climate crisis to dominate UN summit

The annual parade of presidents, prime ministers, princes and potentates starts off on Tuesday in New York City when they meet in person and virtually at the United Nations General Assembly to grapple with global problems, promote their own agendas and engage in diplomacy

UN appoints Nobel Laureate Kailash Satyarthi as SDG advocate

UN Secretary Genral Antonio Guterres has appointed Nobel Laureate Kailash Satyarthi as new Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) Advocate ahead of the start of the 76th UN General Assembly

UN should redesign Sustainable Development Goals, revise targets under Covid challenge

It is the best time to pursue a truly transformative framework by prioritizing the goals, resetting targets with deadlines and setting the strategic actions to fruitfully implement SDGs and their gradual achievements, writes Dr. Mohammad Rezaul Karim for South Asia Monitor

'Catastrophic' economic crisis will engulf Afghanistan if urgent action not taken: UNDP

With Afghanistan in an economic crisis, the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) has warned that 97 percent of Afghans could fall below the poverty line by mid-2022 unless the country's political and economic challenges are addressed promptly

UNSC urged to draw a red line on Taliban treatment of women; India wants Taliban to honor commitment not to harbor terrorists

Warning that terrorism continues to threaten Afghanistan, India has demanded that the Taliban keep its commitment to not allow the country to be used by terrorists

Peacekeeping transition should recognise the primacy of national governments and national ownership: India

India has said that countries emerging into a phase of stability after UN peacekeeping operations should be allowed to set their priorities for nation-building with a “humancentric” approach

India condemns Pakistan’s ‘hate speech’ at UN, as latter runs tirade against RSS and Hindutva

India has accused Pakistan of promoting a “culture of violence” and using the high-level UN meeting on the culture of peace for hate speech

Afghan envoy to UN defies Taliban regime, asks international community to reject it

Afghanistan's Permanent Representative Ghulam Isaczai created a diplomatic stir when he defied the new Taliban government, asked the international community to reject it and denounced its use of violence to reinstall the “so-called Islamic Emirate

Taliban will be judged by its actions; recognition contingent on commitment to human rights, particularly women and girls, says new UNSC president

The Taliban's overthrow of a democratically-elected government in Afghanistan has spillover effects in the region and the UN Security Council would like to hear from the people in the region, according to Ireland's Permanent Representative Geraldine Byrne Nason, who heads the Security Council this month

West has left behind a catastrophe in Afghanistan, learn lessons from it, resist imposing own models on nations, said a combative China at UNSC

Displaying a soft tilt towards the Taliban, which has captured power in Afghanistan, a country in which it has developed a growing and strategic stake in recent years, China called for respecting the sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity of the South Asian nation, and the rights of the Afghan people to determine their own future

Strong UNSC resolution against terrorism in Afghanistan; applies to J-e-M and L-e-T

The United Nations Security Council has demanded that the Taliban should not allow terrorists to use its territory for attacks against other countries and this would apply to the Lashkar-e-Toiba and the Jaish-e-Mohammad, according to India's Foreign Secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla

Half a million may flee violence-torn Afghanistan; UNHCR warns of 'coming darkness'

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has said that the situation in Afghanistan following the Taliban takeover last week “remains uncertain and may evolve rapidly,” with up to 515,000 new refugees fleeing

Credible reports of Taliban executions; women, journalists, civil society leaders in danger: UN rights chief

United Nations Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet has said that she had received credible reports that the Taliban had committed serious violations, including summary executions of civilians, in Afghanistan