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 …
widespread public protest and media debate has forced the Kerala government to shelve its ambitious project to sell the waters of two major rivers to multinational companies. The project sought to attract global corporate investment in two industrial water supply programmes. It envisaged extraction of 240 million litres of water …
the ban on 20-year-old commercial heavy vehicles in Bangalore, which came into effect on January 1, 2003, has been deferred by six months. The Karnataka government maintains that the step was taken to give respite to truck owners whose financial condition is precarious. But the state authorities appear to have …
Writ Petition number 202 of 1995; Godavarman v the Union of India and others. This is the ‘forest case’ being heard in Supreme Court for the past seven years. With more than 800 interlocutory applications (ias) filed, the case will dictate the fate of India’s forests and an estimated 10 …
celebrations should ideally have marked the tenth anniversary of Panchayati Raj institutions (pris), which are often described as world's largest experiment in decentralised governance. Even Prime Minister (pm) Atal Bihari Vajpayee had wanted the occasion to be commemorated in the winter session of parliament. Instead, the house did not list …
The Wildlife (Protection) Act Amendment Bill 2002 (the Bill) makes for interesting reading. For one, there is recognition of the increasing incidence of wildlife crime and stringent provisions to deal with it. On the other hand, for the first time in wildlife protection law, there is mention of people's participation …
River waters are contested ground, full of complexities and all the confusion that contending parties bring to them. And there is very little that brings any clarity to the debate. There are almost no grassroots initiatives that articulate a larger alternative agenda for water sharing, rights and use. It is …
mustard, an integral part of Indian cuisine, has now become the subject of a raging controversy in the top echelons of India's scientific establishment. The debate centres around three transgenic mustard varieties that await clearance from the high-powered Genetic Engineering Approval Committee (geac) to make mustard (Brassica juncea) the first …
Kuttimathan's search for sustainable development started way back in 1987, when he started work as a guide for scientists from Kerala's Tropical Botanic Garden and Research Institute (tbgri) in Agasthyar Hills. He informed these scientists about the many secrets of the herb Trichopus zeylanicus, known in local parlance as aarogyapacha. …
When you buy a bicycle, you can repair it. You can dismantle it and reassemble it. You can modify it to suit your requirements. You can learn from it to design a better bicycle. All this is perfectly legal. It is the way in which societies have moved ahead. There …
"Abandon all hope, all ye who enter" This inscription that marks the gates of hell in Dante's Inferno could well be true for Jharia town in Jharkhand. For, the underground fires that have been raging in the coalfields here for over several decades are now beginning to engulf its thickly …
I travel in drought-hit Rajasthan. I want to see, and record. What does really happen when an area is hit by drought? It doesn't rain over Rajasthan the way it used to. Less rainfall has led to a drop in groundwater levels. This year, Rajasthan got 208 mm rain. That's …
I would love to write a handbook on the Indian bureaucracy. But for now let me focus on a favourite, the yes-minister technique. Do nothing, and then when pushed, unleash chaos. Nothing succeeds as much as failure. Every solution has a problem. Take the issue of encroachments in forests. The …
In a desperate bid to tide over its financial crisis, the Kazakh government is studying a proposal to import radioactive waste from abroad and bury it in the country. Though the venture will result in heavy cash inflow, environmentalists warn that it will turn the former Soviet republic into a …
a proposal to simplify rules allowing hunting of wild animals that damage crops in villages in Madhya Pradesh (mp) is pending with the state government. According to sources in the state forest department a move is afoot to ease the existing laws for hunting animals such as wild boars, cheetals …
Canada has embarked on a major wildlife conservation campaign. The country is planning to create 10 new national parks, spread over 100,000 square kilometres, and five marine conservation areas over the next five years. Announcing this, Prime Minister Jean Chretien gave an assurance that Ottawa would also do more to …
Pakistan's Karachi district government has struck a deal with the Karachi Water and Sewerage Board (KWSB) to reuse treated effluent. Under the pact, the city government will provide a sewage treatment plant of KWSB to Va Tech Wabag, a private company. In addition to this, the firm will get 4.45 …
at a time when the country is yet to recover from the impact of a drought and the consequent problem of hunger, the Union government has proposed to revise the grain bank scheme. Ironically, what could have been an effective instrument to weed out starvation from India"s most poverty stricken …
forest, water and biodiversity management don't have powerful lobbies. Mining does. The trouble is mineral exploitation can easily destroy the natural resource base of the poor
Legally, Paras Nath doesn’t exist. At the age of 52 he is still clueless about where he hails from. Nath was barely five years old when he began toiling hard to grow sal trees in the forest. “Even my parents were not able to trace their antecedents, but they too …
Plants are available in far-away places; women can't collect them. So we don't teach them our medicines. Gania, Medak, Andhra Pradesh Our generation will have to learn cultivation techniques from experience. There is nothing to go by. Chaturbhuj, Dudu, Rajasthan Plants that were available near the house now have to …
