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 …
Shimoga, a small city in Karnataka celebrated car free day on October 6, 2001. This is the first instance that any Indian city has celebrated car free day, which has been taken up as an initiative in several European cities to reduce car use and thus reduce vehicular air pollution …
the Uttar Pradesh government has implemented the five-year-old Supreme Court (sc) directive to close down all brick kilns within 20 kilometre radius around the Taj Mahal. Orders have been issued for dismantling of the chimneys of these brick kilns, informed the counsel for the state government, Ajay Agarwal. On May …
The 4th wto ministerial conference in Doha has granted that governments are free to take all necessary measures to protect public health. Simply put, governments can override patents without the threat of a backlash of large pharma multinationals. It is now upto governments to use these powers to bring down …
From September 1, 2001, all genetically modified (gm) fish products will be labelled in South Korea. "Violators would be fined us $7,867,' said officials of the ministry of maritime affairs and fisheries. The country has already mandated labelling of gm corn, soybean and bean sprouts and is planning to extend …
At least 20 endangered sarus cranes were recently killed and eaten by villagers of the Banteay Meanchey province of Cambodia. "The birds ate many rice plants and, therefore, the villagers hunted them,' said Thach Khorn, the provincial governor. Sun Hean, a wildlife department official, opines that such incidences are the …
buckling under the pressure of the industry, the Sri Lankan government has indefinitely postponed its plans to impose one of the world's stringent bans on genetically modified (gm) food. The ban was initially imposed in May 2001. But it was postponed a month later due to pressure from the World …
after a gap of 18 years the Union government has formulated a draft national health policy 2001, which fails to address the key issues of the national healthcare scenario. While the policy mentions several problems and inadequacies of the healthcare system, it hardly suggests any solutions. "Identifying problems is fine, …
Environmentalists have warned that a popular carnivorous freshwater turtle species imported to Sri Lanka is posing a serious threat to the country's indigenous fish species and aquatic animals. The turtle, known as the red eared slider (Trachymis scripta), is classified under the world's worst invasive species by the International Conservation …
The management of about 423 plantations covering an area of 809 hectares have been handed over to district governments in Pakistan. The governments would be responsible for the management and protection of forest area on these plantations. These plantations are in Bhakkar, Layyah, Khushab, Pakpattan, Mianwali, Faisalabad, Toba Tek Singh, …
the biggest coral structure in the world might be threatened very soon. The Australian government has left the option of future oil drilling open near the Great Barrier Reef. tgs nopec Geophysical, a Houston-based multinational company, has recently proposed to carry out exploration for oil near the world heritage area …
it could have been a church, with people confessing their sins. Only, it was a consultative meeting, where wildlife mangers and the conservation fraternity confessed that protected area management under Eco Regional Planning (erp) was an abysmal failure. Held on August 6-8, 2001, in New Delhi, the meeting organised by …
the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (cag) has condemned the Orissa government and the state pollution control board (pcb) for their failure on various fronts, including lapses in checking deterioration of water quality in major rivers of the state. In its latest report, cag has said that due to …
What are your development plans for Mizoram, which has one of the richest natural resources in India? Mizoram has plenty of cultivable land and the government is thinking of developing the region with more and more cash crops. It also plans for a project that would improve bamboo cultivation, which …
the Delhi assembly passed the Right to Information Bill 2001, which proposes to bring about more transparency in governance, on April 9. "The bill seeks to provide each citizen the right to information,' said Sheila Dixit, Delhi's chief minister. But this right is subjected to certain conditions
As governance formally surrendered the administration of Delhi to chaos on All Fools' Day, April 1, 2001, the fate of its citizens' health and public transport continued to hang in balance. Ministers and politicians had a field day blaming each other for the chaos and rioting that broke out on …
nepal's forest bureaucracy is set to follow the footsteps of its Indian counterpart. What was hailed as a radical community forest management (cfm) programme is on the brink of a complete, disastrous makeover. The Forest (Second Amendments) Bill, 2001, to be soon placed in parliament for approval, will strip the …
Forest bureaucracy arms itself to halt the spread of CFM • In the guise of a finance bill, the Nepalese government has given district forest officers powers to punish forest users' groups (FUGs) members l In the terai , the government is interested to give the forest to foreign companies …
two months after the Supreme Court (sc) directed the Delhi government to de-seal industrial units, owners of which were willing to give an undertaking that the premises would not be used for any non-conforming activity, not a single unit has been de-sealed as yet. In November 2000, the state government …
There is much confusion among government authorities and industrialists regarding the definition of a polluting industry. Even those seeking de-sealing have no clue on what basis they should file the application. Consider the case of a plastic moulding unit. The owner has alleged that he was given a license to …
