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 …
amid the controversy over the relocation of polluting industries, a private bill introduced in the Delhi Assembly on November 23, 2000, which aimed at protecting the city residents from environmental hazards, was rejected. The Environmental Related Diseases (Prevention and Control) Bill, 2000, was introduced by former Delhi health minister Harsh …
the killing of endangered Olive Ridley turtles continues unabated on the Orissa coast. According to field observers, almost 659 turtles have died on the coastal stretch at Gahirmatha during the last three months. In 1999, at least 20,000 turtles had died while swimming ashore. The number is likely to rise …
the Union ministry of mines ( mom ) proposal to amend the Fifth Schedule of the Indian constitution could take away the constitutional rights of the tribal communities over lands and other natural resources in the scheduled areas. The amendment
How do you plan to overcome the flaws in the current pollution control approach in Tamil Nadu? Where pollution is concerned, I believe it is not appropriate to use the word
The latest environmental fix in Delhi, once again under the pressure of the Supreme Court, is the relocation of polluting industries situated in the areas that are in non-conformity with the city's Master Plan. Four years went by without the government taking any serious action and now that the court …
It is estimated that around 8,000 years ago, more than six billion hectares (around 40 per cent) of the Earth's surface was covered by forests. Today, the figure has plummeted to a mere 3.6 billion hectares. Every year, at least 14 million hectares are lost. Among the hundreds of species …
alarming levels of radioactivity have been detected in two rivers near the Siberian Chemical Complex, Russia's largest nuclear site, according to a usa nuclear watchdog group. The Government Accountability Project said that more than enough radioactivity to meet the world's electrical power demand had been found in the Tom and …
The petroleum industry in India has always resisted the use of ethanol as a blending stock in fuel, favouring methyl tertiary butyl ether ( mtbe), a known carcinogen. This time around the representatives of ethanol industry got together at the seminar
With ether-based oxygenates falling out of favour, ethanol is emerging as one of the most favoured options worldwide. According to H B Mathur, professor emeritus at the Delhi College of Engineering, petrol-ethanol blend can reduce carbon monoxide and hydrocarbon emissions by up to 35-55 per cent. According to Saroj Misra …
untreated effluents and domestic sewage discharged into the Ballandur lake in Bangalore heaped up as froth and spilt over to the bridge connecting the village to the Ring Road on October 22. The frothy foam of highly toxic wastes bewildered the villagers so much that they thronged the area to …
vypeen Island in the backwaters of Cochin, Kerala, has been rocked by protests against government plans on development of the island. "The government wants to sell reclaimed land of the island to multinationals to build a bridge to the island,' says Jacob Vadakkancherry, chairperson of Swasraya Vypeen (sv), a voluntary …
with no government regulations in place , until recently, the bottled water industry in India was totally unorganised. Any one could set up a bottling plant, fill bottles with tap water and sell it in the market. There was a big question mark on the quality of water. This may …
delhi had not seen the kind of protests that prevailed on November 20-21 in recent years. Thousands of angry workers took to the streets in several parts of the capital disrupting traffic, burning vehicles and resorting to widespread arson and looting to protest against the Delhi government's decision to seal …
Sahashradhara, Dehradun, India. A soft drink shop greets thousands of tourists at this confluence of a thousand streams. So what's the big deal? Well, its just that the shop is located right inside a microhydel powerhouse that supplied electricity to three nearby villages for over four years. Two year ago, …
As the world wakes up to a depleting finite sources of power like coal and the growing opposition to big dams, countries all over the world with water resources and difficult areas to electrify are opting for the community mode of electricity generation and distribution. "Today, a confluence of technological, …
In India, the Central Electricity Act, 1948, does not allow individuals, communities or cooperatives to take up electricity generation and distribution. Only a private company bound to sell power to the government can do so. Of course the company has to sell power at rates the government fixes. Since such …
Three years ago, when Chija Maya, a resident of Piughar, spoke about a run-of-the-river microhydel power station in her village, many people thought that she was whistling in the dark. Though hydro-electricity first came to Nepal in 1911 to light the King’s palaces, it still remains a dream for 85 …
Asia has more polluted cities than any other continent. That's what a comparison of 20 leading cities of the world shows. Rapid economic growth spurs the growth of big cities, which in turn bring in more vehicles. While the growth rate of vehicles in most developed countries has stopped or …
Children, in developing nations, face grave risk from air pollution. These are the findings of a report published by, the Washington-based, World Resources Institute ( wri ) . The report studies the risks to children from air pollution in urban outdoors. Nearly a year after the publication of the study, …
