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 …
the post-war consensus on poverty alleviation was shattered by a truculent critique of the welfare state from the combative conservative right in us in the early '80s. Apart from the rising costs of welfare which impoverished the treasuries of governments, the liberal left had also to stomach the fact that …
the decision of the United Front ( uf ) government to set up the High Powered Commission for Integrated Water Resources Development Plan has been welcomed as an significant step, though, if the terms of reference, and statements of the chairman of the commission G V K Rao, is anything …
" every man, woman and child has the inalienable right to be free from hunger and malnutrition in order to develop their physical and mental faculties'
STUDIES on the interrelationships between gender, poverty and environmental change in rural India remain a grey area, tackled by very few economists, a notable exception being Bina Agarwal. This well-chiseled monograph focuses on variations across regions and shifts over the last two decades. It studies the impact of environmental degradation …
If producing cultural products, such as books, newspapers, movies or radios, reflects a nation's degree of progress, then the developing world trails far behind. And the gap has decreased only marginally over the last two decades. The South-Northratio of book titles published for every million individuals was 1:10 in 1991, …
Reduction of poverty remains one of the foremost global challenges. An estimated 1.3 billion persons in the developing world will live in. absolute poverty by the turn of the century. While the Headcount method of measuring poverty counts the proportion of people whose income or consumption is below a certain …
IN THE backward regions of the world, there is as much a need for technology as there is for organisational know-how for improving productivity. Effective administration and demand-supply management can be established by cost-beneficial electronics communications and Computer technology advances which make possible a state of 'zero-tag-time' taken to reach …
Everyday, some 40,000 people die from hunger-related causes. In the 47 'least developed' countries, 10 per cent of the world's population subsists on less than 0.5 per cent of world's income. Over a billion people are compelled to live on less than a dollar a day. And the strain on …
The Platform for Action is an agenda for women’s empowerment. It aims at accelerating the implementation of the Nairobi Forward-looking Strategies for the Advancement of Women and at removing all the obstacles to women’s active participation in all spheres of public and private life through a full and equal share …
PALAMAU, a district in south Bihar, is the archetype of an unfair and increasingly common socioeconomic paradox: rich land, dirt poor people. Despite its vast natural resources, forest cover, rainfall and low population density, Palamau has a dismally low development index, further lowered each passing year under the double trouble …
The concept of Chakriya Vikas Pranali (CVP) can roughly be translated into English as "Cyclical System of Development". As with all translations, it is a poor copy of the original meaning. The concept originated from the famous Sukhomajri experiment. (Sukhomajri is a village in the Ambala district where the first …
Looks can deceive. If you saw the meagre frame of 35 year-old Sarojini Pradhan, you would dare not suggest that she had led some 3 score women in tying up a forester who had been surreptitiously felling young sal trees. Pradhan is the president of the Mahila Mandal (women's organisation) …
FELIX murillo, chief of the Peruvian National Statistical Institute, has claimed a reduction of 8 per cent in poverty, as revealed by official surveys of standards of living between 1991 and 1994. Statistics from other sources -- including the World Bank -- say that more than 12 million Peruvians (65 …
The hatchery must go. The decision was unanimous and it bound together the 100 odd fisherfolk -- men and women -- with a common purpose. They had gathered under the red tiled roof of the New Baxipalli Mahila Sangho in Gopalpur-On-Sea, about 100 km from Orissa's capital, Bhuvaneshwar. The mid-March …
The international community may agree to do without chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) -- the chemicals identified as being primarily responsible for the depletion of the earth's ozone shield -- but the state of Arizona is not about to be bullied into doing so. The state legislature has passed a law allowing the …
Activists are pressing the 28-year old Asian Development Bank (ADB) for greater reform of its policies, saying it should do more to reduce poverty instead of just focusing on growth and luring the private sector into the region. NGOS and the ADB differ on issues ranging from indigenous peoples, policies …
ACCORDING to ecology experts, extensive nuclear testing and largescale secret dumping of radioactive wastes in the far north have transformed the Barents and Kara seas in the Russian Arctic into what are probably the most polluted waterbodies on Earth. For over 3 decades now, the 750 km-long Novaya-Zemlya archipelago and …
The smuggling of rare medicinal herbs out of Nepal is worrying environmentalists. Important herbs from the western region - including endangered ones like Panchaule, latamansi and Yarchagombu - are being carted to Nepalgunj, and then on to the rich North. Nepalese environmentalists are par '7 ticularly irked that the Pakhanbhed …
THE setting up ofthe Inspection Panel in September 1993 as a permanent body which will monitor World Bank-funded projects is a significant, far-reaching development. Unfortunately, the World Bank (WB) governing board of executive directors' mode of selection of sensitive areas was highly disappointing. There have been serious objections to the …
