Good morning, and happy Sunday. It is a quieter news day by design, the kind where diplomacy and neighbourhood ties do more of the talking than markets or boardrooms. That is not a bad thing. Pour the chai, there is still plenty worth your fifteen minutes.
In today's newsletter: Modi's climate equity pushback at a global conference in Delhi, and India's widening relief effort for flood-ravaged Nepal.
What to watch and read this weekend
This week's OTT lineup. If you need a couch weekend, this week's new OTT drops span The Bads of Bollywood, The Trial season two and Article 370, a decent spread across a workplace comedy, a courtroom drama and a political thriller. |
On the shelf. For readers who like their geopolitics with footnotes, a new book on TikTok's soft power examines how Beijing leans on the app's popularity for geopolitical influence, a timely read given how much of global politics now plays out on short video. |
Modi tells global conference rich nations emit six times India's per capita carbon
Prime Minister Narendra Modi used a climate conference in Delhi on Saturday to make India's case at a moment when rich countries are pushing developing economies to cut emissions faster. Inaugurating the National Green Tribunal's International Conference on the Future of Environment and Climate Dynamics, Modi said developed nations produce six times more carbon per capita than India, and that developing countries are unfairly blamed for a crisis they did the least to create.
He pointed to India's own record to back the argument: the country's per-capita emissions remain less than half the global average, and India is the only G20 economy to have already met its Paris Agreement commitments, years ahead of schedule. Solar capacity, he noted, has grown from 2 gigawatts twelve years ago to more than 160 gigawatts today.
The two-day event at Vigyan Bhavan drew environmental experts, Supreme Court judges and senior officials, underlining how climate policy in India increasingly sits at the intersection of science, law and diplomacy rather than being confined to any one ministry.
This is India positioning itself ahead of a year of climate negotiations where richer economies will keep pressing emerging markets on emissions targets. Leading with equity data rather than promises gives New Delhi a harder argument to counter, and reinforces its pitch to speak for the wider Global South on climate finance and fairness.
The conference was organised by the National Green Tribunal, not a ministry, and it pulled in sitting Supreme Court judges alongside bureaucrats. That is a quiet signal that India's courts see themselves as active players in shaping climate policy, not just adjudicating disputes after the fact.
India steps up relief flights as Nepal's flood toll climbs past 1,400
India sent another consignment of aid to Nepal on Saturday, part of a relief operation that has been running since flash floods devastated the country's north in late August. An Indian Air Force aircraft carried 11 tonnes of medicines, forensic supplies, tents and sleeping bags to Kathmandu, the latest in a series of air consignments India has sent since the disaster struck.
The floods, triggered by an ice-rock avalanche near the Nepal-Tibet border on August 26, have killed at least 1,410 people, with more than 6,100 still missing. India has now sent over 130 tonnes of relief material and deployed 54 expert personnel, including forensic teams, to support Nepal's rescue and recovery work, making this one of the largest sustained humanitarian responses New Delhi has mounted for a neighbour in recent years.
Breaking.exe
A new kind of AI model. A ChatGPT co-founder's new venture has released a transformer alternative that developers say offers a cheaper, faster path to software intelligence than conventional large language models, a bet that the next leap in AI may not look like the current generation of chatbots at all. |
Deep tech money trail. Members of the India Deep Tech Alliance put roughly Rs 2,170 crore into 56 deep-tech companies over the past year, spanning AI, quantum computing, robotics and climate-tech, a sign investors are backing harder science bets beyond the usual app-layer startups. |
NSE co-location case closed. The Supreme Court has allowed a settlement between the NSE and Sebi, closing out the years-long co-location dispute over claims that some brokers got preferential high-speed access to the exchange's trading servers, a case that has shadowed exchange-technology governance in India for a decade. |
Pangaea Revisited
Drones over Ukraine's borders. Russia has stepped up drone activity near Ukraine's western frontier, and officials say the incursions are increasingly threatening Western dignitaries travelling into Kyiv, a sign that Moscow is widening the war's reach even as ceasefire diplomacy sputters. |
Greenland deal claims. Donald Trump says a new agreement with Denmark hands the United States permanent control over Greenland, a claim Copenhagen has not confirmed in the same terms, reviving a territorial dispute that has simmered since Trump first floated buying the island. |
Canada eyes EU ties. Ottawa is warming to Brussels' proposal for an EU "associate membership" spanning critical minerals, defence, AI and energy, part of a broader Western realignment as traditional allies hedge against an unpredictable Washington. |
Also, Also, Also
India's Oscar pick. The Film Federation of India has chosen the Marathi film Gondhal as India's official entry for the 99th Academy Awards, beating out 32 other submissions including the commercial hit Dhurandhar. |
Rajasthan Royals deal cleared. The Competition Commission of India has approved the Lakshmi Mittal family and Adar Poonawalla's roughly $1.65 billion purchase of the Rajasthan Royals, clearing the way for one of the biggest ownership changes in IPL history. |
Tirupati ghee probe. Enforcement Directorate findings have flagged roughly Rs 230 crore worth of adulterated ghee supplied to the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams over five years, keeping alive one of India's most closely watched food-safety scandals. |