India to cut carbon emission intensity by 20-25 pc by 2020

Ahead of the Copenhagen summit on climate change, India today announced that it would reduce carbon emission intensity by 20-25 per cent by 2020 on the 2005 levels through a series of policy measures, including mandatory fuel efficiency standards on all vehicles.

Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh said if the Copenhagen Summit is successful in reaching a "comprenhensive and equitable agreement", India would be willing to do more but only through voluntary measures.

"We are telling the world that India is voluntarily ready to reduce emission intensity by 20-25 per cent in 15 years from 2005," he said replying to a debate in the Lok Sabha on impact of climate change.

IMEI-less Phones To Go Offline Today

If you are one amongst the 25 million subscribers using an IMEI-less handset (Chinese or not), this might just be the last day you use your mobile phone as one. Chances are that your phone might just be relegated to an overpriced media player as it can be taken "offline" by your trusted mobile operator.

The reason is a directive from the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) to disconnect all phones which do not have valid IMEIs from their network. This move comes after a yearlong saga of many flip-flops and ideas some of which included things like "legalizing" an illegal handset by assigning it an IMEI number. However, after a year, nothing seems to have borne fruit and an exasperated DoT has come up with this directive.

What remains to be seen now is if the mobile companies really go ahead and "deliver" this time round. This is not the first time that such a directive has been issued by the DoT. Earlier this year, there was a huge outcry when a similar directive was issued. However, nothing much happened that time. Let us wait and watch if anything happens this time as well. Meanwhile, keep a tab on the network signal indicator on your Chinese phone!