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 contagion appears to have been contained before it could assume epidemic proportions. But it has still claimed four lives. The recent outbreak of plague in the Rohru-Jubbal belt of Himachal Pradesh (HP) highlights how a surveillance mechanism is conspicuously absent in India. While the disease is said to have …
Wildlife experts said that the volcano, which had erupted in the Democratic Republic of Congo, is not likely to directly affect the rare gorillas of the Virunga Mountains. It would, however, devastate the chimpanzees and other wildlife in the forest around the volcano. "The ecological integration in the whole region …
the challenge faced in the control of infectious diseases such as hiv/aids, tb and malaria is now seen more as a political and communications one than scientific and medical. Medical and technical solutions to keep major contagions in check are now available. Yet, they remain major killers, says a recent …
In line with its deregulation of the country's downstream oil industry, Nigeria is inviting bids to build independent oil refineries. The new private refineries' licensing programme is aimed at reducing the country's dependence on imported fuel. According to guidelines, prospective refinery operators will first have to pay a non-refundable us …
Theirs is no romantic tale of the desert. Rather the plight of camel herders of Rajasthan today is that of an endless struggle for survival. Time was when Virma Ram proudly watched his herd of camels stretch in an endless line along the dusty horizon. Today, his gaze has turned …
A new report of Panos Institute reveals that more than 330,000 Zimbabwean farm workers are reeling under problems of inadequate water supply, poor housing conditions, overcrowding and waste disposal. There are more than two million workers living in abject poverty on the country's commercial farms
An outbreak of the deadly Ebola virus has spread from Gabon to the neighbouring Congo. The country's health officials have identified 11 cases in a remote forested region on the northeastern border with Gabon, where 16 cases have already been reported, said the World Health Organisation in a statement. Although …
a plant derivative might be the promising cancer cure that oncologists have been seeking. Researchers from the University of Washington, usa, claim that a derivative of Artemesia annua (wormwood) could help cure cancer. The derivative called artemisinin is used extensively as a remedy in malaria prone regions of Asia and …
in a historic deal brokered by a British court, building materials firm Cape Plc has agreed to conditionally pay us $30 million to South African miners who blame the company for contracting asbestos-related diseases in South Africa's Northern Cape provinces during the 1970s. The company will now pay us $15, …
LIKE A FISH out of water, she chokes and gasps. Writhes. She struggles to snatch a lungful of air, while watching television she suddenly hits a vacuum. She is asthmatic. She is just about anybody. One of the 150 million that are reminded the hard way that life in today's …
for years the rainforests of Assam have suffered the ignominy of isolation and neglect. Attempts are now underway to conserve this national heritage with active public participation. As a measure of this enterprise, a three-day festival rejoicing the cultural and spiritual links between these rainforests and the local communities was …
WHEN the "last chance to save the Earth" came around in 1992, the global environment and development community was full of hope, energy and expectations. Ten years later, another such chance is round the corner, but nobody is getting his or her hopes up. Commentators around the world have remarked …
WITH increasing patients and many of them in industrialised nations the market for asthma drugs is growing rapidly. It is the eighth largest selling drug market and possibly the most profitable venture for pharmaceutical companies, at par with profits made from cancer and heart diseases related drugs. In the absence …
A fortnight after poachers killed four endangered black rhinos in southeastern Kenya, the Kenya Wildlife Service (kws) claimed that it had arrested one person in possession of three fresh-looking rhino horns. Another person was arrested on suspicion of storing the horns at his house. In November 2001, four black rhino …
most commonwealth developing countries will witness a drop of up to 30 per cent in their crop yield by 2050 due to global warming. India and Pakistan may see a drastic decline of 20-30 per cent in their crop production, affecting more than one billion people. In Africa, about 350 …
there is hope for winged creatures in Germany. The Westkuestenpark Oiled Seabird Rehabilitation Centre at St Peter-Ording in Schleswig-Holstein is preventing around 200 birds from being killed due to an oil spill. Earlier, cleaning oiled birds was thought to be futile by wildlife authorities. "They would literally hire hunters after …
DID modern medicine inadvertently give birth to one of the deadliest diseases of the 20th century? This is the question that is currently haunting medical circles . It is triggered by a hypothesis that points to a chilling linkage between large-scale use of penicillin injections and the origin and spread …
The Indian Biodiversity Bill has been cleared by the Parliamentary Standing Committee and is now before the house for approval. Not before time. Given that it has been over nine years since we signed the Convention on Biological Diversity (cbd) and that the bill has been drafted and redrafted it …
Crop raiding is a cause of much conflict between farmers and wildlife throughout the world. In Africa the great dependence of a large proportion of the human population for their survival on the land, coupled with the presence of many species of large mammal leads to many sources of conflict …
Africans may be deprived of a lot many things, but some of them are gifted with a gene that provides protection against malaria. A survey done by an international team of researchers recently revealed that every tenth person in Burkina Faso has a gene that provides defence against malaria. The …
