Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev on Thursday explored the possibility of a Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement (CECA) to maximise the trade potential between the two countries, sources said. Sources said the proposal regarding the CECA between India and the Customs Union of Russia, Kazakhstan and Belarus was discussed between the two sides. The two leaders met at Singh’s Race Course Road residence for about 45 minutes on Thursday, after attending the BRICS summit at Taj Palace hotel.

About 28 percent of Bangladesh's total population (41.7 million) is living in urban areas, said a Unicef report released on Wednesday.
Among the top 21 mega cities of the world, according to the report, Dhaka ranks 9th position with 14.3 million people, while Tokyo 1st with 36.5 million, Delhi 2nd with 21.7 million, Sao Paolo 3rd with 20.0 million.

India has taken the lead in what it calls “kickstarting” an “international north-south corridor” from Iran to Russia via Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan to ensure a seamless connectivity to Central Asia. New Delhi wants this corridor to be operational by 2013. Government sources said here on Wednesday that New Delhi met interlocutors from these partner countries in January to initiate the process. The plan, kept under the wraps so far, is in keeping with the the country’s “Look Central Asia policy”.

Kazakhstan believes the international community's first nuclear fuel bank can be up and running on Kazakh soil by late next year, potentially supporting the Obama administration's broader efforts to combat the spread of nuclear weapons.

Kazakhstan is the world's largest producer of uranium ore and has been in consultations with the U.S., European Union and United Nations to host a facility initially capable of storing 60 tons of low-enriched uranium for export.

India has the worst air pollution in the entire world, beating China, Pakistan, Nepal and Bangladesh, according to a study released during this year’s World Economic Forum in Davos.

Of 132 countries whose environments were surveyed, India ranks dead last in the ‘Air (effects on human health)’ ranking. The annual study, the Environmental Performance Index, is conducted and written by environmental research centers at Yale and Columbia universities with assistance from dozens of outside scientists. The study uses satellite data to measure air pollution concentrations.

Commodities group Glencore released its first sustainability report on Wednesday showing it paid $780,000 in major environmental fines last year and had 18 fatalities.

Glencore, one of the world's largest commodities trader, promised to launch sustainability reporting during the run-up to its listing earlier this year after spending decades as a private company, revealing minimal information about its business to the general public.

Chandigarh Punjab chief minister Parkash Singh Badal strongly urged members of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on commerce to take up various pending issues of the state, including industrial package on the lines of hill states, setting up of steel silos, package for agro industries development, relaxation of the norms to set up SEZs and export of brown rice and Kinnow, with the central gover

Agreement may be worked out before closure of conference India maintained silence on listing of endosufan under the Rotterdam Convention at the fifth meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention, which opened in Geneva on Monday.

PM in Astana, will meet President Nursultan Nazarbayev today
The Central Asian Republic of Kazakhstan is keen to buy small nuclear reactors from India and the two countries propose to carry out a feasibility study in this regard soon.

With Prime Minister Manmohan Singh arriving here this evening on a two-day visit to Kazakhstan, the stage is set for inking of an inter-governmental framework ag

In trying to cope with the fallout of the Fukushima nuclear disaster on India