Global megatrends such as income inequality, climate change, demographic shifts, technological progress, and urbanisation are shaping the future of societies. Yet, their quantitative impacts on development are neither well understood nor established. This paper examines the individual and combined effects of these global forces on poverty, using both cross-section and …
Poverty has declined considerably in India but there are striking economic disparities between different states, the country's first National Human Development Report 2001 observes. The absolute number of poor declined fro m323 million in 1983 to 260 million in 1999-2000. However, the decrease has not been uniform either across the …
In a major anti-poverty initiative, World Bank President James Wolfensohn has proposed a seven point plan for the world's rich nations to provide additional aid to the poorest countries. Wolfensohn, in a statement Monday night, noted that developing countries were taking a more prominent role in setting their growth targets …
It is 2 am, and mining at a unit located in a remote area in Beawar (Ajmer district) is on in full swing. Trucks loaded with asbestos can be seen constantly moving to and fro, the light from their halogen lamps struggling to pierce the all-pervasive cloud of toxic dust. …
us government scientists recently changed their stand on the link established in an earlier report between cancer and Agent Orange, used to defoliate jungles during the Vietnam. The revised Institute of Medicine report says there is not enough evidence to prove whether children of Vietnam war veterans have a higher …
If the macroeconomic and sectoral projections for the Tenth Plan are achieved, the poverty ratio in India should fall to 19.2 per cent by 2007, according to the Planning Commission.
A major aspect of Saranda's Jal, Jangal, Jameen movement is the manki-munda system of self-governance in which the patriarch of the family becomes the head (munda) of the village. Anyone wanting to settle in a village has to request the munda to make them his subject. The mundas select a …
Following the death of thousands of birds due to the H5 virus attack, Hong Kong has culled 18,000 chickens at a farm outside a quarantined area. Allaying fears, health authorities said the strain was not the kind that killed humans in 1997. "To prevent the spread of the virus, we …
As always , in the run up to Budget 2002-2003, there was much speculation about what the budget would or would not contain, and what finance minister Yashwant Sinha might or might not say in his speech. February 28 has come and gone, and the speculation is over. Budget pundits …
The Union Cabinet's decision to slash by a rupee per kg the prices of food grains to be sold to people above the poverty line from the public distribution system, is yet another example of the government's futile search for piecemeal solutions.....Editorial
One definition of foreign aid is that it flows from the pockets of the poor in the West to those of the rich and the powerful in poor countries. So it is a welcome development that the consensus reached at the UN International Conference on Financing for Development at Monterrey …
The Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) has joined issue with the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) on its charges of fuel adulteration. A CSE report released last week had said that adulteration was rempant. The quality of diesel and petrol collected indifferent parts of the Nation Capital Region wad found …
Despite its environmental impact, China has begun building a 4,200-kilometre gas pipeline costing us $18 billion. Its aim: boosting economic growth in the impoverished western provinces and delivering fuel to the booming eastern city of Shanghai. The pipeline's trial construction has already kicked off in fragile wetlands and on the …
It is confirmed now. Indians are less poor today than they were 10 years ago. Poverty line runs at 26 per cent, rather than 35 per cent. Statisticians say that the figures are true and all the debate on the issue can be safely ignored. Still there are two things …
Orissa continues to top the list of poorest states in the country, Bihar is at the second position. The latest economy survey report by the Union government states that 47.15 per cent of Orissa's population lives below the poverty line. Of which, urban poor and rural poor constitute 43 and …
A strategic pro-poor policy has been adopted by the Union Minister for Rural Development. The strategy is intended to be treated as a net resource replete with the poor persons' own ideas and experience in tune with the local condition. The states with poor connectivity reflect poor socio-economic indices. A …
The World Bank has approved Rs. 6 crores for special poverty eradication programme for Chhattisgarh. The programme will be run for upliftment of the economic conditions of the families living the Below Poverty Line. The project, to be implemented in all 16 districts of the state, will benefit 1.5 lakh …
According to the latest sample survey data on consumer expenditure by National Sample Survey Organisation the poverty ratio on a 30-day recall basis is estimated at 27.09 in rural areas, 23.62 in urban and 26.10 for the country as a whole. Also, as many as 12 states are still above …
The poor in Nepal appear to possess the Midas touch. Wherever the government has handed over control of degraded forestland to them under the leasehold forestry programme, the Himalayan country's ecology has staged a magical turnaround. In the process, the below poverty line (bpl) households have unfolded economic miracles also. …
The secretariat of the convention on wetlands has announced that the government of Ecuador has named two new wetlands of international significance. The protected status of the two areas became effective recently. Ecuador has set aside for protection the 46-hectare "Refugio de Vida Silvestre Isla Santa Clara' in the Provincia …
the challenge faced in the control of infectious diseases such as hiv/aids, tb and malaria is now seen more as a political and communications one than scientific and medical. Medical and technical solutions to keep major contagions in check are now available. Yet, they remain major killers, says a recent …
