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 …
Life in Delhi seems to be just that. Reeling under pollution, the citizens live under a constant threat to their health. The urban sprawl, a deteriorating environment, haphazard industrial growth, exponenetial increase in the number of vehicles, a flawed transport policy, a nearly absent waste managament policy
seabuckthorn (Hippophae rhamnoides) grows in the cold desert regions in Himachal Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir. Scientists value it for its medicinal properties. The deciduous bushy-tree is another one of the plants found in India that private companies from the rest of the world trade in but which the Indian …
the skeletonised frame of 68-year-old Manglu Bhoi doesn't shiver with the chilly spring breeze on a bright February morning, but with the thought that he has to walk for two kilometres to fetch a bucket of water. A resident of India's poorest district, Balangir, he is one of the million …
These systems were evolved keeping in mind the unique topography of the region. Earlier, kings used to give agricultural lands to those maintaining tanks as incentives. Today, most of these structures are in a dilapidated condition, and in some cases have simply vanished. bandh: A traditional pond that is usually …
the Nepalese government's decision to ban vehicles older than 20 years has been met with stiff opposition. On February 2, traffic came to a standstill in various parts of Kathmandu after transporters took to the streets. Again on February 9, the National Federation of Transport Entrepreneurs organised a protest rally. …
Melchhamunda is an oasis in the parched western Orissa. The village in the Bargarh district is fighting the drought with its 400-year-old pond that still contains water. The village depends on agriculture for survival and is only source of irrigation is the around 10-hectare Kata. As Deepak Bhoi, a resident …
• Community structures transferred to government after Independence. Community lost their rights l Attention shifted to modern irrigation projects often not suitable to the local topography. l Rich farmers converted tanks into agriculture lands earlier shared by the community for irrigation l Deforestation led to siltation in the catchments areas …
Environmentalists have raised strong objections about the Costa Rican government's proposed national forestry plan, which they allege favours the logging industry. The country's environment ministry had recently released the
the Madhya Pradesh government has dissolved the state pollution control board after its chairperson V K Jain was arrested by the Lok Ayukta (la), an autonomous watchdog body. The la says that several documents in its possession reveal that Jain gave no objection certificates to several polluting industries, including distilleries, …
The administrative tribunal of Paris has ordered the French government to publish a list of sites in the country where genetically modified (GM) crops are being grown on a trial basis. The court has directed the government to disclose the list on the basis that it is public information. The …
hailed as a "bold' step to create the right environment for economic reforms, the Union Budget, presented by Union finance minister Yashwant Sinha on February 28, totally ignores the real environment. Rather, it creates an atmosphere to pollute the environment in more ways than one. At a time when there …
How severe is the problem of malnutrition among children in India? Malnutrition is a serious and very common problem. About 50 to 60 per cent of the children, who are below the age of five, suffer from malnutrition. On an average, these children suffer from moderate to severe malnutrition. How …
If you saw tv programmes or read newspapers on the latest budget, you would have thought it is only for business leaders. The manner in which business editors and columnists went overboard to seek the response of the corporate community to Yashwant Sinha's latest hat-trick of budgetary numbers shows a …
The Union ministry of surface transport (most) frames vehicular emission norms and notifies certification procedures for vehicles, as per the Central Motors Vehicles Act (cmva). The emission norms for converted cng buses were notified on February 9, 2000, more than one and half years after the sc order of July …
If the Delhi Transport Corporation and the State Transport Authority do not increase the number of their buses, why should we increase capacity for supply? If I order equipment worth several crore rupees without there being adequate number of buses, how would I answer to my superiors?' Thus Rajiv Sharma, …
In complete mockery of its very title, the Union ministry of environment and forests (mef) has shown no interest in pushing for implementation of the cng order despite all the power at its disposal. mef is only too happy with the national emission standards, which are nothing more than the …
It has remained confused all along about the cng issue, giving contradictory statements. Delhi government officials have been easy conduits of misleading information from those pro-industry factions that are looking for excuses to not implement the sc order. It began by selectively citing biased documents from the us , supplied …
Though private bus operators will have to shoulder a bulk of the responsibility of phasing in CNG buses, they were the last to be informed by the Delhi government. The first public notification for them came in October 1999. The first meeting to discuss the logistics with them happened as …
It isn't just the ministries that are misinforming the public about cng and ensuring the non-implementation of the Supreme Court order on cng. The Tata Energy Research Institute (teri), a New Delhi-based energy consultancy, has also contributed to such efforts. The teri -industry nexus is strangulating adoption of cng . …
