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 …
Nigerians have developed a unique response to strikes, as was seen on October 6, 2003. Thousands of panic-stricken people besieged banks to withdraw money and stockpile food even as the Nigeria Labour Congress (nlc) announced another round of action, to protest a 12 per cent hike in fuel prices. At …
The New Zealand government has dropped the contentious proposal to charge a levy from farmers for methane emitted by their livestock. The plan had been opposed fiercely by the farming community (see: 'Smells like trouble', Down To Earth, August 15, 2003). In New Zealand, methane emissions from ruminants are responsible …
toxicity unleashed: In a controversial move, the EU has legalised the herbicide paraquat even as the bloc's own risk classification and labelling lists the chemical as acutely toxic. The US, too, has taken a similar step, with the federal government announcing that it would not impose new restrictions on atrazine. …
• An inspection team of the Karnataka government pays a surprise visit to Thottadhagudathahalli primary school, located on the outskirts of Bangalore, and detects discrepancies in the rice and oil stocks meant for students' meals. • Less than 2 kilometres away, at the Sidedahalli government primary school, 45 students and …
The mounting problem of non-biodegradable plastic waste seems to have caught the Sri Lankan government's attention. The country's cabinet has given its nod to a series of proposals put forward by the country's environment and natural resources minister, Rukman Senanayake, to tackle the pollution problem arising from the improper disposal …
Subsidies are recognised worldwide as a serious threat to sustainable fisheries management. They distort international fish trade and penalise developing country fishers whose governments cannot afford to provide them subsidies. The debate on the size and impacts of subsidies intensified after the Food and Agricultural Organization reported in 1992 that …
The stage is set for the December 1 assembly elections in Delhi, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh. Coming after a healthy monsoon that was preceded by a severe dry spell, the polls offer parties the perfect platform for articulating their stand on matters concerning development. A Down To Earth (dte) …
even the heavy monsoon may not be able to drown out the political parties' poll pitch with regard to drought-relief work in Rajasthan. The two major contenders in the state
in the capital, a clean break seems to have been made with the rancorous mudslinging that is part and parcel of an election campaign. Instead, substantive issues are fuelling the verbal slugfests in the run-up to the assembly polls. Matters pertaining to participatory governance, development and the environment have taken …
madhya pradesh (mp) is one of the few states in India where development, or the lack of it, can have a direct bearing on the outcome of the elections. The ensuing assembly polls in the state are also being fought largely on this plank. On the one hand, chief minister …
On the night of September 24, residents of Uttarkashi in the Garhwal Himalayas were jolted by rumblings of rocks and boulders hurtling down the Varunavat parvat (hillock). Landslides have ravaged this ancient pilgrimage town ever since. Many buildings including high-rise hotels and houses have come under a steady stream of …
There are worry lines all over the face of M K Bhojan, a small tea grower in the Nilgiris district of Tamil Nadu. Tea prices have fallen cataclysmically in the last few years, affecting small farmers like Bhojan most acutely. In 1997-98, one kilogramme (kg) of green tea leaf fetched …
Folk Artistes Gyani Baba (wise saint, literarily), a seven feet-tall puppet with handle moustache, is up for a big task in Rajasthan's Ajmer district. He is teaching the importance of good governance and asking people to fight drought. Immensely popular, Gyani Baba has already travelled to around 100 villages. But …
www.nautilus.org The stark, no-nonsense design of the site gets one to the point immediately. This is the website of the us -based Nautilus Institute for Security and Sustainable Development, which aims "to solve interrelated critical global problems by improving the processes and outcomes of global governance'. Details of programs, projects …
The Sri Lankan government has hit upon a practical idea to help the paddy farmers in the country. It has appealed to people to curtail their consumption of bread and opt for rice instead. The country's demand for wheat flour (all of which is imported) has been steadily rising to …
with the southeastern parts of Bangladesh experiencing a number of mild-to-moderate tremors since July 27, it is feared that a major earthquake is set to rock the region in the near future. Significantly, Bangladesh
• The Ministry for Protection of the Environment and Natural Resources of Russia has sold nine plots of wood in the Kaluzhsky region through an Internet auction. Apart from over 1,600 hits from Russia itself, the auction site had traffic from Ukraine, US, Germany, Bulgaria, Norway, United Arab Emirates, South …
The Bangladesh government wants to overhaul the country's Planning Commission and dismantle its monopoly in preparing development projects. The authorities contend that the rationale for the initiative is effective utilisation of public money. Each ministry will now have to prepare projects by mobilising its own personnel. The ministries will also …
