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  • Rs 16,447-cr Budget allocation for NE

    Riding on the back of a populist Budget, Finance Minister, P. Chidambaram today reiterated UPA Government's commitment for economic uplift of the north eastern region (NER), announcing a hike of Rs 2082 crore in Central allocation. The NER will continue to receive special attention and enhanced allocations. "I propose to provide Rs.1,455 crore to the Ministry, Development of the North Eastern Region (DoNER),' said the Union Finance Minister. The total Budget allocation for NER, spread over different Ministries and departments, will increase from Rs 14, 365 crore in 2007-08 to Rs 16, 447 crore in 2008-09, he announced. Although the Finance Minister spoke of special interest for development of NER, his words did not match the allocations. For instance, he announced a special centenary grant of Rs 20 crore to the Tocklai Experimental Station at Jorhat. The demand was for Rs 100 crore grant. The Tocklai Station at Jorhat of the Tea Research Association will celebrate its centenary in 2010. It is in the process of upgrading its facilities and expanding its activities to cover the NER, North Bengal and Darjeeling. A visibly agitated BPPF MP, SK Bwismutiary sought to interrupt Chidambaram on a couple of occasions, protesting meagre allocation for BTAD areas. The Finance Minister has also proposed to set up centres for development as mega clusters in handloom sector. The Government proposes to invest about Rs 70 crore in developing each cluster. An initial amount of Rs 100 crore was earmarked. Incidentally, both the projects are in Union Minister for State for Fertilizer and Chemicals, Bijoy Krishna Hendique's Parliamentary constituency. Meanwhile, the Special Purpose Tea Fund set up last year for re-plantation and rejuvenation has been earmarked Rs 40 crore. The fund popularly called the tea package was envisaged to bail out the sick tea industry. The NER and, especially, Arunachal Pradesh and the border areas face special problems that cannot be tackled in the usual course or through normal schemes. Hence, Government proposes to identify the urgent needs of these areas and address them through a special mechanism, he said, acknowledging the problems faced by the border State. "In order to jumpstart the process, I propose to set apart a sum of Rs.500 crore in a fund dedicated for the purpose,' said the Minister. The ambitious SARDP-NE, a programme envisaging development of road infrastructure, has been set a target of 300 km. Last fiscal, 180 km of road had been constructed. The Finance Minister also declared a special focus on saving the tigers. The number 1,411 should ring the alarm bells. "The tiger is under grave threat. In order to redouble our effort to protect the tiger, I propose to make a one time grant of Rs.50 crore to the National Tiger Conservation Authority. The bulk of the grant will be used to raise, arm and deploy a special Tiger Protection Force,' Chidambaram said. The National Aids Control Programme will be provided Rs.993 crore. Studies have shown that the prevalence rate of HIV and AIDS has come down from 0.9 per cent to 0.36 per cent, which is a matter of some satisfaction, he said. Meanwhile, allocation for flood control projects for the NER and Sikkim has been hiked to Rs 114.20 crore from Rs 58.39 crore. While there was no mention of the Majuli Protection Scheme, Pagladiya Project has been earmarked Rs 2 crore, a rise from Rs 1.29 crore. However, allocation for Indo-Bangladesh border works has gone down to Rs 484.23 crore from Rs 560.97 crore.

  • The just framework for climate

    <p>Let&rsquo;s cut to the chase. If we are serious about climate change then we have to be serious about changing (drastically) the way the world generates and uses its energy. But even as the rich world talks glibly about &lsquo;decarbonisation&rsquo; of its economy it has done precious little to reinvent its energy system and to wean itself from its fossil fuel addiction.

  • Equity and Global Climate Policy

    <p>The key issue is not defining equity but determining whether climate change is a sustainable development or an environmental challenge</p> <p class="rtejustify">A workshop on &lsquo;Equitable access

  • Carbon emissions from aviation: issues and options

    <p><strong>The underlying issue is not trade rules but the global climate regime</strong></p> <p class="rtejustify">The concerted opposition to the EU push towards forcing foreign airlines landing in

  • Quick comments: US submission – post -2015 Agreement

    <p><img alt="" src="http://indiaenvironmentportal.org.in/media/iep/homepage/msanwal_blog.jpg" style="width: 600px; height: 117px; float: left;" />The US submission on elements of the post-2015 agreement

  • Monkeying with money

    Monkeying with money

    Reluctantly funding developing countries for research on CFC substitutes is another exercise in enriching multinationals who created much of the ozone hole

  • Equitable 'environmental space' for all is going to be the new issue

    JOHN HONTELEZ"S concern for the environment began in 1969 when, as a 15-year-old, he got irritated by the use of packaging and plastics. One of his first campaigns was to oppose the shift in his school canteen from stone cups and iron knives to plastics.

    • 30/04/1994

  • Alaska oil ban repealed by the Senate

    Alaska oil ban repealed by the Senate

    The us Senate recently voted down an old and controversial ban on oil drilling in Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (anwr). This win for the Senate, supported by President George W Bush, was

  • Sovereign wealth fund for overseas energy assets

    The government is planning to create a multi-billion-dollar sovereign wealth fund to invest in energy assets such as oil, gas and coal across the world. "The plans are at a very initial stage. A decision on this would be taken after the budget,' Planning Commission energy adviser Surya P Sethi said here. "The fund, if set up, will invest in overseas oil, gas and coal assets.' Sethi did not give any idea of the possible size of the fund, but said: "It has to be in billions of dollars.' According to the latest data available with the Reserve Bank of India, the country's foreign exchange reserves stood at about $290.8 billion for the weekended February 8, up 57% from a year earlier. A sovereign wealth fund comprises assets such as stocks, bonds and other financial instruments, which is owned and managed by the government. The funds are deployed overseas for higher returns. The fund will be on the lines of Temasek Holdings, a sovereign wealth fund owned by the Singapore government. Officials are of the view that low returns on investments in US treasury bills and other sovereign securities did not cover the costs of maintaining huge forex reserves, and justified establishing a fund that could deliver higher returns. Last year, state-run India Infrastructure Finance Co Ltd set up an offshore unit in London to use part of the country's reserves to help local Companies import equipment for infrastructure projects. The corpus of this fund is $5 billion. The central bank has previously expressed reluctance at using forex reserves to set up an investment fund as it said the build-up in reserves was largely to insulate the Economy from the impact of huge capital inflows, which could be reversed at short notice.

  • Green money

    Financial institutions may soon lend a helping hand to the environment sector, says the Indian environment minister

  • Dream work?

    Dream work?

    The UPA government s first full fledged budget is full of promises. How real are they?

  • Fair farming

    Fair farming

    The European Union buckles under the pressure of the developing countries to reduce agricultural subsidies

  • MONEYMAKERS

    PANDA Electronics Co, China's leading television manufacturer, has had enough of selling no-frills sets. It is gearing up for a into the satellite dish and telephone businesses. Panda believes that

  • IN FOCUS

    The Clinton administration has suffered yet another setback in its crusade to protect the forests in the US northwest from marauding timber merchants. On September 14, district court judge

  • Green facade

    Green facade

    The Australian government is painting a rosy picture about how it has allocated a record us $1.6 billion towards environmental funding in the country's budget for 2004-2005. Authorities say the

  • India has ample wheat stocks

    India, the world's biggest producer of wheat after China, has enough stockpiles of the grain to meet demand, a finance ministry report said before tomorrow's federal budget announcement. The state-run warehouses had 7.7 million metric tonne on January 1, the report issued on Thursday in New Delhi said. When combined with the arrival of imported wheat, supplies will be sufficient in the financial year ending March 31, the report said. Still, the South Asian nation may import 2 million tonne in the year starting July 1 after dry weather pared output, the US Foreign Agricultural Service said. The country bought 1.8 million tonne a year earlier, supporting a rally in prices of wheat that topped $12 a bushel for the first time in Chicago this week. Wheat for May delivery fell as much as 27.25 cents, or 2.2%, to $12.2275 a bushel in after-hours trading and stood at $12.45 at 12:05 pm Singapore time. The price on Wednesday rose as much as the expanded daily trading limit of $1.35, or 11%, to a record $13.495 after plunging by the same permitted amount. India's production may drop 1.3 million tonne to 74.5 million tonne in the March-April harvest after farmers planted the crop on a smaller area compared with a year ago, the Foreign Agricultural Service said in a report dated February 20. The government, which needs 1 million tonne of the grain each month to distribute to the poor, will start purchases of the new crop in April. It plans to buy 15 million tonne from the farmers, up 35% from a year earlier.

  • Congress plans rallies to cash in on farm debt waiver

    Buoyed by the popular reaction to the farm debt waiver and debt relief scheme announced in the budget, the Congress has planned a series of rallies in State capitals and district headquarters. It will begin with a massive show of strength on the Ramlila grounds here on March 9. At the same time, Congress president Sonia Gandhi will meet State-wise all-party MPs from March 3 to 5 in the Parliament House. In a bid to pull out all stops to cash in on the popular sentiment, Ms. Gandhi's meetings with MPs will generally carry the message that the momentum and high ground gained by the party on the farmers' indebtedness issue, should be maintained throughout the year when six States go to the polls, and till the Lok Sabha polls next year. The States going to the polls this year are the ones where farmers would benefit the most from the Rs.60,000-crore debt waiver scheme. These are Karnataka, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Chaattisgarh, Delhi and Jammu and Kashmir. A senior party leader said that the mood in the party is upbeat and the leadership wants it to be sustained. Central to Ms. Gandhi's meetings with MPs would be the message that the programmes launched by the Congress-led UPA government should be "properly explained' to the people. In particular, the Congress would like to take the credit for the National Rural Employment Guarantee Programme and now the farm debt relief issue, the sources explained. On Monday, Ms. Gandhi will meet MPs from Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Bihar, Manipur, Meghalaya and Arunachal Pradesh. On Tuesday, she is to meet MPs from Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Delhi, Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Puducherry, Haryana, Punjab, Chandigarh, Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand. On Wednesday, the Congress president will meet MPs from Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Goa, Dadar Haveli, Daman and Diu, West Bengal and Andaman and Nicobar. The AICC has planned the rallies keeping in mind the hundreds of Congressmen who want to "thank' the Congress president for the decision on the debt relief scheme.

  • Loan waiver: "worst affected farmers rendered ineligible'

    Delivering the Third Sumitra Chishti Memorial Lecture here on Monday, The Hindu Rural Affairs Editor, P. Sainath, methodically demolished the "historical and unprecedented' Union budgetary farmer loan waiver stating that the worst affected farmers were rendered ineligible as they possessed more than the stipulated two hectare land holdings. "In Vidharbha, over 50 per cent of land holdings are over 7.5 acres [around 3 hectares] and of the remaining 50 per cent, 25 per cent have restricted access to banks. There is nothing in the budget that increases the income of farmers or stabilises prices,' he said. Agrarian crisis Speaking on the agrarian crisis, the Magsaysay Award winner said over 1.5 lakh farmers had committed suicide in the past five years. A farmer killed himself every 30 minutes and the number of such suicides had increased from 15,000 a year between 1997 and 2001 to 17,000 a year in the 2002-06 period. "Just like each case of child labour has a personal history behind it, every farmer suicide had a multiplicity of causes. But the larger canvas or backdrop that leads to such suicides is common and stems from certain undeniable causes.' Enumerating these causative factors, Mr. Sainath said there had been a transfer of funds from the poor to the rich, an unprecedented growth of the corporate sector and gross undermining of local sovereignty and governance. "Farming has been rendered so unviable at the small-scale level that there are not many takers for it and the relentless drive towards corporate farming has just hastened the demise of the small farm not just in India but the world over,' said the eminent journalist.

  • Shaping the rules of the new climate regime: International cooperation should focus on meeting the objective of the Convention

    <p>The task for global governance in dealing with climate change is to focus on the interconnectedness between carbon dioxide emissions, standards of living and global ecological limits. The interdependence

  • Drowning In Human Excreta

    Drowning In Human Excreta

    Sanitation for urban India means building flush toilets and linking them to sewer systems. But the price of chasing this dream is leading to an environmental catastrophe. MANOJ NADKARNI analyses our flush and forget mindset

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