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 …
contrary to the statistics published by the United Nations Food and Agricultural Organisation (fao), which indicate that the global fish catches are stable, fisheries scientists at the University of British Columbia (ubc), Vancouver, Canada, have documented evidence that catches have been declining for over a decade. This new evidence means …
geyser manufacturers could soon be out of business in Haryana. As a part of its energy conservation effort, the state government has made the use of solar water heating system (swhs) mandatory in private functional buildings such as hospitals and hotels. A regulation that makes the installation of swhs compulsory …
in an apparent knee-jerk reaction to the farmers' demand to cultivate Bt cotton, the Union government plans to commercialise several genetically modified crops by the end of 2002. The government can meet this deadline only if it flouts its own procedures. Manju Sharma, secretary in the department of biotechnology, has …
A recent Nepal Red Cross Society and Environment and Public Health Organisation survey have revealed that the underground water of Rautahat district was contaminated with arsenic. Consequently, the district officials are now interacting with Drinking Water Corporation and health posts to find measures to check further pollution. As more cases …
a recent World Bank (WB) study has estimated that environmental damage costs the Andhra Pradesh (AP) government Rs 3,259 crore per annum on human health. This is four per cent of the gross state domestic product (GSDP). The impact of industrial and agricultural pollution on water quality works out to …
Environment protection as it exists today is more in the nature of response to a public outcry over government apathy. When the Indian law makers fashioned the constitution, little did they envisage the need for environmental legislation. The adoption of the great political document in 1950 was, therefore, sans any …
the land of the mighty Chomolungma (Mt Everest) and the mother of many 8,000-metre-high snow-capped peaks, Nepal has no less than 6,000 odd fast-flowing rivers and a total annual outflow of 150 billion cubic metre (bcm). This "so-called colossal water potential of Nepal' is just a "socio-economic myth', according to …
The Indian Biodiversity Bill has been cleared by the Parliamentary Standing Committee and is now before the house for approval. Not before time. Given that it has been over nine years since we signed the Convention on Biological Diversity (cbd) and that the bill has been drafted and redrafted it …
in warangal, Andhra Pradesh, there is only one black Ambassador car in the official circle and it belongs to the conservator of forests. Painting the car black some 15 years ago was a conscious decision to evade attacks. The black Ambassador drives home the fear psychosis that has gripped the …
Left helpless, the affected states have started demanding amendments to the fca. About a year ago, Madhya Pradesh chief minister Digvijay Singh wrote to the prime minster requesting changes in the act. When the coordination committee of the Union home ministry met in April 2000, one of the main issues …
Room number eight is located in a nondescript corner of the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (aiims), New Delhi. Gauri Prasad regularly visits this room, which stores medical histories of cancer patients. A resident of Panipat, Haryana, Prasad has been afflicted with lymphoma for the past five years. Now …
We are not supposed to keep on publishing the report,' says N K Ganguly, director-general, icmr. "We are supposed to carry out research and cannot spend money on a particular project,' he justifies. It is as if icmr's cancer data is protected under the Officials Secrets Act. Repeated requests to …
The registries would have helped formulate a control programme . But in absence of the data, the nccp has been forced to source information from other places. "We use World Health Organisation's projections,' says Sudhir Gupta, chief medical officer, directorate general of health services at the mohfw. Ironically, the ncrp …
As prime minister A B Vajpayee was reminding the nation about threats from across the border in his Independence Day speech from Delhi's Red Fort this year, a group of extreme Leftist outfits, popularly known as Naxalites, were redrawing the internal map of the country. At a secret meeting held …
Two home truths about irrigation departments across India: they are a fountainhead of corruption and run on huge losses. But July 2002 may prove to be a watershed for rural water supply management. Around that time, the Maharashtra government will hand over control of irrigation facilities to the state's farmers
An emergency fund to pay for forest protection is in the pipeline in China. According to the Chinese government, the first stage will involve a one-billion-yuan package supplied by the Finance Ministry for maintaining 13.3 million hectares of forests in 11 provinces this year. Logging has been banned in ecosensitive …
Private operators have bulldozed the Delhi government into indefinitely deferring the phase-out schedule for diesel buses. As against a target of 2788 buses, only 727 have gone off the roads in December 2001. On October 18, the Supreme Court (sc) had directed the city government to phase out 8881 diesel …
a recent in-principle clearance to a gasification plant in Delhi has fuelled a major controversy. While environmental groups are up in arms about the "polluting and extravagantly expensive' project, Energy Developments Limited (edl) India
In a move that will see the world's deepest oils drilled off the East African coast, the Kenyan government has signed an exploration treaty with a uk- based company. Although the move is likely to expand Kenya's fuel supply and get the government out of the mess caused by the …
The Supreme Court has given eight weeks' time to the Union government to prepare the necessary plan for making Fatehpur Sikri, the capital of the Mughal empire for some time and now in Uttar Pradesh, a national heritage city for its better preservation. Acting on a petition seeking rehabilitation of …
