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 …
"Tonight I am proposing $1.2 billion in research funding so that America can lead the world in developing clean, hydrogen-powered automobiles,' declared us President George Bush in his State of the Union Address to the congress in January 2003. The announcement is just one among a spate of recent developments …
Last fortnight I wrote about the different models of water privatisation. Questions continue to haunt me, but let me try and work towards some resolution. Firstly, there is the issue of pricing of water for the relatively rich of the developing world. It is evident that urban and industrial sectors …
The New Zealand government proposes to promote the development of two wind farms by providing them Kyoto Protocol climate change credits for the energy produced. While one is a 36-mega watt (mw) extension of TrustPower's Tararua wind farm, the other is a 40-80 mw project of state-owned Meridian Energy. Power …
The Sundarban delta region in the Bay of Bengal, with 10,000 square kilometres of estuarine mangrove forest and 102 islands, is the world's largest delta. The land here is an eerie muddle of landmass and sea, with mudflats and waves engaged in unrelenting battle. Constantly lashed by cyclonic storms and …
http://www.tarahaat.com If you are a Net-savvy villager in north India, Tarahaat.com could easily become your favourite haunt on the Web. For starters, the website offers email services in 11 Indian languages. The utility of the website goes beyond traditional Net services. The Livelihood channel offers comprehensive information on how to …
On the CSE study on pesticides in bottled water The fact that nobody has confronted the study speaks for itself. It is a case of a non-governmental organisation doing all that is possible within its limitations to highlight an issue of public concern. We see the study as a warning …
Oscar Olivera of Bolivia is something of a mascot for anti-globalisation movements across the world. During the recent Asian Social Forum meeting in Hyderabad, Olivera spoke in Spanish. And in spite of the tediousness of translated messages, his dozen-odd speeches found eager listeners in the 15,000 participants at the meeting. …
The Union government is keenly wooing private investment for its mega river linking project. In a recent meeting, chairperson of the project task force Suresh Prabhu tried to convince the business audience that the cost of rehabilitation would be inbuilt as in China's Three Gorges dam project. Prabhu also did …
The deadly Ebola virus has claimed at least 50 lives in the Republic of Congo. The Congolese ministry of health revealed that the victims belonged to Kelle and Mbou villages, in the Cuvette West region north of Brazzaville. Ebola is a deadly viral disease that causes death due to massive …
The Afghanistan government and UNICEF (United Nations Children's Fund) will begin a new training programme for teachers before the new school year begins next month. Four million Afghan children are expected to return to school, many of them for the first time since the ouster of the Taliban regime. More …
Intention and execution are not always related. That's the Swajaldhara lesson. Swajaldhara is a national-level rural water supply scheme that seeks to put in place a people-oriented, decentralised and demand-driven water management regime. To this end, it aims at utilising pachayati raj institutions across the country, empowering them in the …
In the face of mounting protests against the Comprehensive Wasteland Development Project (cwdp), the characteristically intractable chief minister (cm) of Tamil Nadu (tn), J Jayalalithaa, has been forced to climb down partially. The state government's ambitious programme has been in the eye of a storm ever since it was conceived …
an unprecedented legal battle is being fought in Pakistan's Lahore High Court. Responding to a petition filed by two food rights groups against the import of genetically modified (gm) soyabean from the us, the Pakistan government has declared that the transgenic variety is safe in terms of its impact on …
Last time I wrote about the cycle of poison, where one toxic substance is replaced with another, equally toxic, one. This cycle, I wrote, is exactly like the modern economy where business is profitable only when it comes up with profitable solutions for old problems. It is a toxic tango, …
optimism is a great friend but a bad guide. The Asian Social Forum (asf) meeting in Hyderabad, India, deliberately avoided this truism while proclaiming grandly: "Another world is possible". Another world is definitely possible. In fact it exists. The numerous communities that gathered there, with their own stories of survival …
In 1985, the Union ministry of non-conventional energy sources (mnes) introduced improved chulhas (fuelwood-based cooking stoves) to primarily conserve forests, reduce pressure on rural women who collect fuelwood and to protect their health against indoor air pollution. Called the National Programme on Improved Chulhas (npic), it formed a part of …
the Nainital High Court has rescued hapless residents of Kataldi village in Tehri Garhwal, Uttaranchal. It has stayed mining activity there (see: Deep impact, February 28, 2002). The two-judge bench, in an order passed on December 20, 2002, observed that mining was "derogatory according to rules' and should come to …
on december 25, 2002, Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee unveiled an ambitious scheme to provide drinking water to all villages in the country by April 2004. The project, called
