Governance

Sub-Saharan Africa’s Economic Outlook 2025: Navigating Uncertainty and Aligning Policy for Sustainable Recovery

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 …

THE FUTURE OF CLEAN ENERGY

W e can start this story like a science fiction thriller. But we want to talk reality. So, before discussing the hype that fuel cells generate, let us start on a rather elementary note. The dictionary will tell you that a cell is a unit in a device for converting …

The role ahead

Although it will take large amounts of research investments and government incentives before fuel cells become a commercial reality, there is no reason to get disappointed. The advantages of fuel cells are not restricted to cutting down emissions of greenhouse gases. Fuel cells are silent and economical. Praveen Dhamija, principal …

Hurdles

Fuel cells promise a lot, but there is little hope if shortsighted business interests get the better of policymakers. For one, fuel cells will eat into the earnings of oil companies. The June 1999 issue of the Fuel Cell Bulletin quotes the oil consultancy Kline & Co as saying that …

Inklings

The automobile sector has pursued the r&d of fuel cells more aggressively than any other sector (see box: Have power, get hot water ). Automakers around the world are showing optimistic signs. Some developed countries in Europe and North America are leading the way: they are already operating fuel cell-powered …

The crossover

Although the technology can of be immense value to a developing country like India, the r&d of fuel cells is still at its infancy in the country. "We are still at the familiarisation stage," says an official from the mnes. In Hyderabad, bhel is working on the development of 50-kilowatt …

FIGHTING FOR AIR

MUMBAI Death for Hire Diesel taxis are raising hell. Their drivers are lodged in a pitched battle with the civil society If you live in the business capital of India, it is not difficult to see the byproducts of the industrial boom. A constantly rising number of vehicles has sent …

BANGALORE waking up

Bangalore is a relatively green city. There are no big industrial units in the immediate vicinity. As with most other metros of India, vehicular emissions are the most important cause of air pollution. According to B Shivalingaiah, chairperson of the Karnataka Pollution Control Board (kpcb), there are about 1.4 million …

HYDERABAD Stalemate

Hyderabad is at crossroads. A city rooted in history, it is raring to attain the title of being India's information technology capital. From being a congested old city with very high population density, it wants to become an industrial monolith with a surging economy. If only things were this simple. …

Time to `learn` clean energy is now or never

Source: N Mattson 1998, GENIE: An energy systems model with uncertain learning, quoted in Anon 1999, A GENIE for Imperfect Foresight, IEA/OECD ETSAP News, June

Failed government policies

Health does not seem to be the priority area for the government. The World Health Report 2000 claimed that while only 1 per cent of India's gross domestic produce ( gdp ) is being used in the field of health care, three times this amount is being used for defence. …

Meta Outstripped

even with social activism on the increase, there are cases of powerful industry managing to circumvent rules and bypass procedures to ensure their units get governmental approval to function, regardless of their polluting and degrading natures. An example is Meta Strips Limited (msl), a copper recycling plant, which has got …

Patches of green

It is introspection time. As the country's forest bureaucracy sits down to assess the progress of the joint forest management (JFM) programme, a decade after it was introduced in 1990, what comes out clearly is that its success has been limited to only some parts of the country. Even today, …

KENYA

At least 21 million citizens of Nairobi are facing acute water shortage. Citizens allege that mismanagement, corruption and lack of preparedness on the part the government officials have led to the present state of affairs. The government on the other hand blames drought of the past three years. Water scarcity …

Not fine!

In recent years the Supreme Court (SC) has caught several ministries napping. Recently, the SC pulled up the labour ministry and ministry of environment and forests (MEF) and slapped a fine of Rs 10,000 on each of them. Some months ago, it had penalised the Delhi government for failing to …

I am green by choice , not by chance

What have been your achievements in improving Delhi's environment ? I think the air quality in Delhi has improved in the last couple of months since we have banned the use of polluting vehicles. The Yamuna is getting a lesser load of pollutants. However, it is not as clean as …

Holy cat

Why are tigers kept in zoos? Is it because people like to see pretty wild animals or is it part of a programme to manage wildlife and save it from extinction. The people who could answer this question, the conservationist lobby and the Project Tiger people are surprisingly silent. They …

Dinosaur age ministers

India's Union minister for petroleum, Ram Naik, lives in the dinosaur age. Only Indian politics can throw up such archaic thinkers, given the pits it has reached. At the 16th World Petroleum Congress, held recent in Calgary, where some 2,000 people were demonstrating and asking for public policies to bring …

A Nationalised Nightmare

The landscape looks straight out of a surrealist painting. Vast tracts of land seem diseased, as if something is eating into the land, leaving behind huge gaping wounds. The air is laden with coal dust - you can easily brush it off your shirt collar. Welcome to the Jharia Coalfields …

The failure

"Nationalisation has completely failed to meet its objectives," says Ashok K Rudra, deputy director general of mines safety in Dhanbad. The government talked about welfare of workers but it failed to do justice to any of its agenda. Today, people die in same way as they did before nationalisation. They …

What now ?

"Colliery is in a coma. And only a change in the policy of the government - they must believe in self reliance in the coal sector - will ensure proper growth of the industry," says A K Roy, leader of Bihar Colliery Kamgar Union, Dhanbad. Several industry experts say the …

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