The IMF’s April 2025 Regional Economic Outlook for Sub-Saharan Africa presents a clear warning: regional growth is slowing, debt pressures are mounting, and donor assistance is declining. Yet the report outlines critical opportunities particularly in domestic revenue mobilization, structural reform, and private sector activation that can shape a more resilient …
while the world celebrated the coming into force of the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants (pops) on May 17, 2004, India witnessed a strong protest against it. The Indian Chemical Manufacturers Association (icma), a major stakeholder in the convention, boycotted an important workshop on pops organised on the same …
It has been three years since Sumani Jaghodi a tribal resident of Mandibisi village, Rayagada district, Orissa led a successful struggle of hill broom collectors in the district. She still cannot believe that her modest broom could overturn an enormously skewed forest law of the state. Till March 2000, the …
S A Azad, coordinator of People's Rights and Social Research Centre (prasar) came to Lal Kuan village in the outskirts of Delhi in 1999 with a specific task in mind: making the villagers literate. In due course, he noticed a pattern: despite getting repeatedly treated for tuberculosis, villagers would die. …
Elections 2004 are over. Was it a vote for development, social inclusion and justice? Or simply a vote against an incumbent government, flattened by sleazy and slick self-promotion? The answer is complicated, as can be expected from a country as diverse and layered as India. So, for instance, it can …
There is a prominently held view that dissemination of renewable energy technology is marred by high costs. It’s true that a few technologies like wind power have become cheaper, but others are still expensive. Solar photovoltaics (PV) and wind energy now cost one-tenth of what they did in the early …
According to IEA's factsheet, Renewables in global energy supply, the wind energy sector has grown at more than 52 per cent per annum since 1971, and solar power by 32 per cent per annum. Renewables in 2000 accounted for 13.8 per cent of the world's total primary energy supply (electricity, …
function india_table() { var popurl="html/20040531_india.htm" winpops=window.open(popurl,"","width=450,height=380,scrollbars=yes") } Starting before industrialised Germany and the UK, India has perhaps promoted renewables the longest though a dedicated establishment. The country's Ministry of Non-conventional Energy Sources (MNES) is one of its kind in the world. India has the fifth-largest installed wind capacity in the …
At Renewables 2004, "an international action plan will be on the agenda, including actions and commitments by governments, international organisations and stakeholders," says the conference announcement document. "The conference outcome will include arrangements for a follow-up and a mechanism to share information on progress in implementing the international action plan." …
the Bangladesh government has finally given the green light to the much-awaited National Policy on Arsenic Mitigation. It was recently cleared by a cabinet committee headed by the country's Prime Minister, Khaleda Zia. A nine-member group of secretaries and a panel of experts have framed the policy. "We have consulted …
THE Jammu and Kashmir government has suddenly realised that there exist in the state disgruntled shahtoosh shawl weavers. The timing is perfect. Parliamentary elections are around the corner; weaving families are 50,000 strong. The previous state government rendered them jobless by banning the manufacture of shawls from the fur of …
Last fortnight, Down To Earth reported on the 'endosulfan scam'. On how an "expert" group, set up by the government to review safety concerns related to the pesticide and the health impacts on people living in the shadow of 20 years of incessant aerial spraying, had given the matter short …
This question was asked in an official letter in February this year. The letter had a genesis: an unprecedented gathering of nearly 50,000 people from Meghalaya's tribal communities at Smit, West Khasi Hills. Heeding the call of chiefs, people endorsed on January 14 this year a historical "People's Budget'. Filling …
Last year, Congress chief minister Digvijay Singh lost the Madhya Pradesh (MP) state elections. Two years before, the Communist-led coalition lost in Kerala. Since both governments had fervently promoted decentralisation, questions naturally come to the fore: Was their defeat a vote against the move towards local governance and devolution of …
with political power changing hands in Madhya Pradesh (MP), there has been a concomitant shift in the state's stand on the issue of river networking. The new Bharatiya Janata Party (bjp) government has "agreed in principle' to connect Parvati, Kalisindh and Chambal rivers. The decision, taken in the second week …
HOW bizarre can a government policy decision get? India's first national policy on resettlement and rehabilitation for people affected by development projects was declared through a one-page advertisement, even though the detailed policy paper isn't ready. For a country with an estimated 35-55 million displaced people
after plundering biodiversity hotspots of the South, the ambitious biotech industry is now eyeing Antarctica. As per a report of the Tokyo-based United Nations University, the continent's microbes, with their unique biological properties, have already become targets of "free-for-all' exploitation. While tourism and mining are banned or regulated on the …
The report of the Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) on pesticide residues in and safety standards for soft drinks, fruit juices and other beverages is out. It agrees there were pesticide residues in soft drinks the Centre for Science and Environment had tested, so clearly posing a health hazard. But more …
• Zimbabwe's government has moved, once again, to close down the country's only independent newspaper. On January 23, 2004, the Daily News appeared on newsstands for the first time in six months, a day after Zimbabwean police ended an illegal blockade at its offices. The government immediately filed urgent applications …
