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 …
participants at a recently concluded international conference on environment and health, severely criticised the state government for its poor performance in improving Bangalore's air quality. Organised by the Bangalore-based Karnataka Environment Research Foundation (kerf) and the Lakeside Education Trust, the conference concluded with suggestions to alleviate the city's respiratory health …
The session raised a whole range of problems. When it came to discussing solutions, time ran out. Peter Raven of the Missouri Botanical Garden in the us made some relevant observa-tions: "Food security has increased, but many people in the world still go hungry.' He said extinction rate of species …
the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (cag) has criticised the Union ministry for environment and forests (mef) for its poor implementation of the Ganga Action Plan (gap). A recent audit review of gap reveals that the plan has met only 39 per cent of its primary sewage treatment target. …
For a large part of the year anybody who was anybody in India talked about match fixing in cricket. When Parliament was in session there was a hue and cry over the Ayodhya issue but hardly a whisper in the corridors of power over drought. Ayodhya and match fixing became …
A simple question: who governs this country? K N Narayana Pillai of Chennai cannot get the answer, two years of running from pillar to post notwithstanding. What he's got, instead, is more scales and rashes on his skin. His neighbour runs a saree printing unit, which pollutes the residential area. …
Just a small story in the Business Standard about Europe, but with big implications. The story says that the European Commission has asked the European Court of Justice to approve a fine of us $159,000 per day on Britain for not cleaning up its dirty beaches. That amounts to about …
ON THE face of it, democracy in India has won a small battle. People's aspirations have been met by the creation of the three new states - Chattisgarh, Uttaranchal and Jharkhand. The people agitated for decades against apathy and skewed development of the mother states - Madhya Pradesh (MP), Uttar …
RAIPUR'S air is euphoric. The secretariat, earlier the main civil hospital of the city, still smells of fresh paint. A huge cutout of chief minister Ajit Jogi overlooks its premises, while residents of Raipur eagerly debate the future of this natural resource-rich state and the opportunities it brings. The general …
WHILE the first chief minister of Uttaranchal was being sworn in at midnight on November 9, 2000, many leaders who fought for statehood swore to continue the struggle. "It is not over yet," summed up Kamla Pant, a leader at the forefront of the movement and member of the Uttrakhand …
ON NOVEMBER 15, 2000 when the collective dream of some 22 million people for half-a-century rolled into reality, there was hardly anybody to celebrate. Jharkhand, India's youngest state and one of the richest, was born at midnight. Twenty minutes later, a new government was sworn in to chart out its …
for the people of Mandsaur, Dewas and Dhar districts of Madhya Pradesh drought has been a daily scourge that they learnt to live with. They would wait endlessly for water trains, lock barrels of water to prevent theft and protest sporadically against the scarcity. The recent drought, however, has made …
the Delhi government has once again proved that is not serious about implementing the Supreme Court's order of July 28, 1998. The order states that all Delhi Transport Corporation's (dtc) buses should be run on Compressed Natural Gas ( cng ) by March 2001. The number of cng buses should …
Non-governmental Organisations (NGOs) have become the new "super brands' in global governance. They have earned a far greater level of trust than some of the most well-respected global multinational companies, governments and global media, according to research conducted by Strategy One, a unit of the UK-based Edelman Public Relations Worldwide. …
JULY 17, 2000: "I am under compulsion to start using CNG technology despite problems because of the Supreme Court order.' AUGUST 6, 2000: "The apex court's insistence on implementing the order is similar to an adamant two-year-old child who insists on having a particular thing.' OCTOBER 24, 2000: "The problem …
the conditions relating to rejuvenation, replacement, restoration and renovation, which are a part of the Accelerated Rural Water Supply Programme of the Union government have been relaxed for drought-affected state of Madhya Pradesh. This has been done for the implementation of Rural Water Supply Programme, said Union minister of rural …
the Konkan Railways project was supposed to have been India's most ambitious railway project of the post-independence era. But we must ask ourselves how our democratic system allowed a massive fraud of Rs 4,000 crore to be perpetrated? How a few opportunistic technocrats, bureaucrats and politicians could take the people …
for the past two decades, urban agriculture has been on the rise throughout the world, in both poor and wealthy nations. Millions of urban residents in Africa, Asia, Latin America, and increasingly in North America, are growing crops and raising livestock in yards, on rooftops and balconies, along roadsides, and …
onD ecember 7, 2000, the Sup reme Court set a one month deadline for closure of all polluting industrial units in residential and non-conforming areas of Delhi. The Union ministry for urban development with the help of other bodies and the Delhi government was given the responsibility of implementing the …
the controversial move by the Andhra Pradesh ( ap ) government to give the industry access to degraded forest lands for plantation and other agro-forestry activities through the Joint Forest Management ( jfm ) institutions has sparked off a storm of protests in the state. Over 600 Vana Suraksha Samitis …
