G8 leaders agree to reduce emissions by 50 per cent by 2050
Berlin: G8, the group of eight developed countries have agreed to reduce by 50 per cent dangerous greenhouse gas emissions that are blamed for global warming by 2050.
US president George W Bush said India and China "must" be involved for success of any effort to fight global warming.

German chancellor Angela Merkel, who was the summit host said though she was "very, very satisfied" with the agreement the accord was a compromise as it fell short of her hopes for a binding deal.
Merkel said that the accord gave impetus to negotiations beginning in Bali in December to find a successor to the UN-backed Kyoto Protocol on capping greenhouse gases that expires in 2012.

India has held that countries responsible for creating the problem of climate change should come out in a big way to solve this issue. It argues that the greenhouse gas emissions of developed countries even today are many times more than developing countries like India.
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World Bank says India's GDP to slow down
New Delhi: India's GDP growth would slow down over the next couple of years as a result of restrictive policies — manifested as higher interest rates and fiscal tightening — aimed at curbing inflation, a World Bank report has said. The report said the high inflation is a result of the economy overheating, says the report, titled Global Development Finance, 2007.

The bank has projected that GDP growth will slow to 8.4 per cent in the current financial year, 7.8 per cent in 2008-09 and 7.5 per cent in 2009-10.

The World Bank's projection is in line with the International Monetary Fund's World Economic Outlook, 2007, which projects GDP growth at 8.4 per cent in 2007-08 and 7.8 per cent in 2008-09.
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Kandla SEZ runs into trouble
New Delhi: The board of approvals (BoA) has rejected a proposal from government-run Kandla Port Trust to set up an SEZ spread over 6,100 hectare in Gujarat and has instead asked Kandla Port Trust to develop the SEZ on 5,000 hectares of land, in line with the cap fixed by the empowered group of ministers (EGoM) headed by Pranab Mukherjee in April this year.

The decision has already been communicated to the port authorities who are not pleased with the move.

The shipping ministry and Kandla Port Trust are of the opinion that the land has been lying with the port for years and, unlike with other developers, there is no fresh acquisition.

Kandla's experience may set the precedent for Reliance Industries and DLF which have planned the country's largest SEZs. The Mukesh Ambani group intends to set up the Maha Mumbai SEZ and Reliance Haryana SEZ that would be spread over 10,000 hectare each, while DLF's proposed zone in Gurgaon, Haryana, is intended to cover 8,097 hectare. Omaxe too has plans to build an SEZ on over 6,000 hectare land in Alwar.
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India to purchase 5 mn tonnes of wheat: Pawar
New Delhi: The Union agriculture minister, Sharad Pawar, has said India will buy five million tonnes of the grain from overseas this year to augment the country's buffer stocks for meeting any exigencies like the one witnessed last year.

This will be the second year in succession that India, the world's second-biggest wheat producer, would import the grain. The Centre had imported 5.5 million tonnes of wheat last year to augment its depleted buffer stock owing to low procurement.

Late last month, the government had scrapped a tender floated by State Trading Corporation for importing one million tonnes of wheat.

The government's proposal seems to be driven by problems, including low production and procurement of wheat and rising demands in the country as well as inflation and the tottering Public Distribution System (PDS), which have been dogging it since last year.
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