Month: December 2014
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Negative impacts of hydroelectric projects in the Himalayan regions
Recently, the Union Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change submitted an affidavit in the Supreme Court that the hydroelectric projects “aggravated the impact of floods” in Uttarakhand. While the ministry’s stance has been welcomed by environmentalists, it has delivered a blow to the Uttarakhand government and the companies building these projects as the State’s development…
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Bangladesh Oil spill – all you need to know
What happened? ♣ The Accident – Oil tanker Southern Star -7 carrying 350 tonnes of furnace oil capsized on Sela river . Both tankers were in a no go zone that was declared a sanctuary for endangered dolphins. This lies in the Sunderbans. Despite that, ever since silt had choked the standard shipping route, ships and…
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Payments Banks – concept demystified
Imagine, you have a mobile connection from Docomo. One fine day, you are told it’ll serve you as a bank. Cool , haina? Precisely this is what RBI is vying for. To get more people into the net of banking system, it came up with the idea of Payment Banks. So what exactly are they,…
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Must Read Articles of The Day – 15 December 2014
What to read in Today’s Paper The Hindu A watered-down deal at Lima World Bank report stresses behavioural aspects Opinion/Editorial For better signage on the cyber highway (The Hindu) A step toward humanisation (The Hindu) Chequing out (Indian Express) Good Serviceable Tax (Indian Express) Revisit the endgameplan (Indian Express) United by IS (Indian Express) Is the…
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Falling oil prices – effect on India , demystified pointwise
Oil prices have been falling for a while, and they are likely to remain low. The conventional thinking is that a fall in oil prices will benefit India tremendously. A major reason for the same is that India imports nearly four fifths of the oil that it consumes. Will India only benefit or is there a…
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NHRC – composition , functions and role in safeguarding human rights
“It has always been a mystery to me how men can feel themselves honoured by the humiliation of their fellow beings” -Mahatma Gandhi [su_highlight background=”#12faf9″]History [/su_highlight] The UN Commission on Human Rights formulated the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR). UDHR was adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in 1948. Although the UDHR was a non-binding resolution, it is now considered…