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 …
in a letter to all state chief ministers, Union minister for environment and forests T R Baalu questioned the appointments to pollution control boards (pcb) that were made without following the stipulated requirements in the acts. He directed that appropriate persons be appointed for the key positions and incumbents, not …
Statistics are easy to window-dress: showing everything but concealing vital facts. It is true in case of the small-scale industries (SSIs) also. For an average Indian, SSIs are more than 3.4 million registered small-scale units (and an equal number in the unorganised sector); 100 per cent of sports goods exports …
FOR many years now, small-scale industries have been making ugly rounds of courts. From Delhi to Kolkata, Agra to Vellore, the story repeats itself. Rather with more ferocity. Acting on public interest litigations and frustrated at the government"s lackadaisical attitude, the courts are cracking the whip on the industries. So …
Interestingly, this unregulated and technically incompetent industry sector has been exclusively entrusted to manufacture items, which pollute the most in processes like the garments, leather tanning, dyeing and electroplating. "The economic logic behind this kind of reservation is a fraud," says Shreekant Gupta, reader, Delhi School of Economics, University of …
It is clear that small-scale industries (SSIs) can no longer afford to remain dirty and defiant. The same is true for the government. Not only is it a question of the livelihood of 20 million people but also about cleaning up India's environment, which again affects people. What is required …
NEPAD is a long shot but no one has come up with an alternative Together, the new African Union (au) and the New Partnership for Africa's Development (nepad) reflect a new imperative in Africa's international relations. Integration has replaced liberation as the continent's strategic goal. And for average Africans the …
The backwater islet of Kaavaalam has settled into an uneasy sleep. Some time past midnight they wake up to a much-awaited call: " Vellam vannoo, vellam vannoo
Part I: Untapped data Four consecutive years of drought have brought home a lesson that the people of Hamirpur district and its neighbouring districts in Himachal Pradesh have learnt well. These areas had started receiving piped water supply from the government and gave up on their traditional water harvesting structures. …
STAKEHOLDERS IN RURAL DEVELOPMENT John M Riley . Published by Sage Publications . New Delhi . 2002 . 214 pages The state-sponsored development has been a failure. Therefore, a closer collaboration between the public and private sectors is the need of the hour. The book talks about the type of …
in accordance with the Bangladesh government's decision to ban two-stroke three-wheelers in Dhaka from September 1, around 12,000 such vehicles have gone off the road. The second part of the plan envisages the phase-out of the remaining 5,500 two-stroke three-wheelers
Bawana's bucolic settings have all but made way for Asia's largest industrial hub. The sea change that this northwest Delhi locality is undergoing may, however, leave the area's aquifer depleted and polluted. This is likely to have a ripple effect because Bawana is projected as a future groundwater source for …
It has all the elements of a slugfest among eminent personalities in the public sphere. It would have made great entertainment; only it has to do with education. Science education, actually, in village schools with poor facilities. In an August 8 order, Amita Sharma, secretary (elementary education) to the government …
Brazil is going global with its highly potent anti-aids programme. It will share its know-how in combating the disease with other countries. That the nation has succeeded in cutting its aids-related deaths by half over the past eight years is a measure of the campaign's success. Recently, leaders from Portuguese-speaking …
In India, there is an inextricable link between water and politics. This was very much in evidence recently when the opposition walked out in the Karnataka assembly over the proposed privatisation of Bangalore’s water supply system. Water tariff had earlier been hiked steeply in the city to pave the way …
Dear Mr Vajpayee, A few months ago you spoke passionately about the need to involve local communities in water management. Releasing the national water policy document, you said harnessing every drop of rainwater is a national priority and then went on to say "This is a powerful idea, whose time …
"My idea of village swaraj is that it is a complete republic... The government of the village will be conducted by a panchayat of five persons annually elected by the adult villagers... this panchayat will be the legislature, judiciary and executive combined... Here there is perfect democracy based on individual …
