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 …
Studies conducted in USA have revealed that particulate pollution has a serious effect on the life expectancy of people. Let us assume that a serious episode of particulate pollution leads to heart failure in a person aged 70 years who has a previous record of heart problems, but survives the …
• Increased susceptibility to infection from impaired immune defences • Airways inflammation leading to impaired gas exchange and hypoxia (deficiency of oxygen reaching the tissues of the body) • Provocation of alveolar inflammation* by ultrafine particles with the release of mediators that exacerbate underlying lung diseases and increase blood coagulability …
Concern over particles That airborne particles kill has been known for a while. But the threat is rising with every scientific discovery There is nothing new about particulate pollution. Yet, scientists are talking about airborne particles today like never before. As science on air pollution developed in response to environmental …
in all probability, the Delhi government is going to miss the bus. With only five months left for the expiry of the Supreme Court's (sc's) deadline to convert 1,800 diesel buses which are more than eight years old to compressed natural gas (cng), the possibility of its implementation seems very …
the Delhi government will soon be involving resident welfare associations (rwas) in the capital to participate and monitor the working of the four civic bodies in the state. The step, initiated and supervised by the chief minister's office (cmo), is in the preliminary stage of consultation with the rwas and …
For almost eight months the DTC did precious little to implement this Court order March, 1999: First tender for conversion is floated by the DTC April, 1999: DTC files an affidavit for an extension of the Court deadline and permission to procure Euro I compliant diesel buses April 21, 1999: …
a month after the super cyclone, which left a trail of death and destruction in the Orissa coast, a nation watched in disbelief Orissa chief minister Giridhar Gamang saying: "We don't know what to do?' The same confusion grips the Central government machinery. More than 11,000 people have lost their …
The "super cyclone' will leave a permanent environmental impact on the coastal ecology of the region. According to eyewitnesses, the affected districts have lost more than 90 per cent of their green cover. "There is hardly any tree left on the landscape,' the chief minister said immediately after the cyclone. …
What is the lesson we have learnt from the Orissa cyclone? The poor, as individuals, learn from each cyclone or flood and adopt measures that reduce their vulnerability. But, as far as a system of emergency management goes, we need to make more efforts to learn from each natural disaster. …
residents of Tannery Road in Bangalore are facing a potable water crisis because tanneries located in the area are polluting the groundwater. Untreated hazardous sludge from these units blocks sewers resulting in the seepage of effluents into the ground, a report published in the Deccan Herald said . This has …
on the eve of the World Trade Organisation's (wto) meet in Seattle, Western environmentalists geared up to make their voices heard. They are urging the participating countries to go ahead with only those regulations that are environment-friendly. Western environmentalists believe that wto regulations do not conform to green standards and …
in india, cases of industries flouting environmental laws are not rare and in Gujarat this has become a rule. To set up any industry, an environmental clearance from the Union ministry of environment and forests (mef ) is necessary. This is the only hurdle, albeit insignificant. Before giving the industry …
prevention pays, but only when we invest in it. It will not pay dividends, without sustained, suitable and strategic community-level investments across the country and across development sectors. Disasters will continue to take up an increasing amount of time, cost large amounts of money and require endless efforts, not only …
It may sound sick, but for the survivors of the supercyclone that lashed Orissa on October 29, it was perhaps easier to have perished. Or maybe not, because the dead are not going away. They are present in the stench of rotting corpses and carcasses, which bears the ominous portents …
It is well-known that it is very easy to siphon off funds from earthwork projects, says D K Mishra. Perhaps this was the reason why politicians in the 1950s pushed hard for embankments to be built along rivers in Bihar. The money siphoned off from such projects was used to …
This north Indian state is today a land of paradoxes. It is known both for its mineral wealth and its abysmally poor people. Here we can find corrupt bureaucrats, flushed with funds and personal wealth and a state as deprived of money as the poor who eke out a miserable …
• The embankments of Kamla Balan have been breached on several occasions. In 1963, when the river burst its embankments near Ramghat, it submerged villages such as Kharbar, Gangapur, Gunakarpur and Belhi. In 1964, the left bank on the Lakhnour block was breached near Daiya Kharbari. • In 1965, innumerable …
politicians: A means to generate funds for the party's coffers • Used the concept of shramdan (voluntary labour) to exploit the people • Awarded contracts to their relatives and party workers • Failed to maintain proper accounts contractors: Saw earthwork as an easy way to make a fast buck • …
In 1855, the British government decided to embank the Damodar river in order to prevent flooding. With the construction of watertight embankments on the Damodar, the flood control picture started getting "brighter'. William Willcocks, a British irrigation expert came to India in the 1920s. In a series of lectures, he …
