The World Meteorological Organization’s State of the Climate in Asia 2024 report warns that the region is warming nearly twice as fast as the global average, driving more extreme weather and posing serious threats to lives, ecosystems, and economies. In 2024, Asia experienced its warmest or second warmest year on …
The highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) H5N1 virus that emerged in southern China in the mid-1990s has in recent years evolved into the first HPAI panzootic. A central question is to understand the factors favoring the continuing reoccurrence of the virus. The abundance of domestic ducks, in particular free-grazing ducks …
In Africa, hard-hit by HIV, the proportion of TB drug-resistance is no less alarming. In former Soviet Union, almost half of all TB cases are resistant to at least one anti-TB drug -Bobby Ramakant This World Tuberculosis (TB) Day (24 March) is another opportunity for people of India to review …
The fifth (2005) round of the World Bank's International Comparison Program, which produces estimates of the gross domestic product at purchasing power parity prices, has been the most extensive and carefully monitored project so far. The preliminary estimates were noticeable for the large downward revisions of GDP estimates of China …
plague cases are on the rise and are afflicting countries more frequently than before. A who report says there were around 1,900 cases worldwide in 2002, which increased to 2,100 cases in 2003. In India, 16 cases of pneumonic plague were identified in Shimla, Himachal Pradesh, in 2002
Disease remains a "stubborn threat' to public health, says report Responsible for almost 10 per cent of AIDS-related deaths India loses 100 million productive workdays every year because of TB Businesses around the world have been urged to play a more active role in tackling health problems among their workforce, …
The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation has called on the oil-producing countries of the Middle East to invest more of their oil windfalls in developing agriculture in their region, in order to address the serious threat to food security posed by water scarcity and climate change. Jacques Diouf, FAO …
There are two broad categories of marginal-quality water: wastewater generated by the domestic, commercial, and industrial sectors; and saline water from agricultural drainage systems, surface runoff, or pumped from overexploited aquifers. Millions of small-scale farmers around the world irrigate with marginal-quality water, often because they have no alternative.
After 30 years of dynamic growth and substantial poverty reduction in Asia, do agriculture and rural development still have a role to play in that region? The policy briefs in this collection provide abundant evidence that they do. Although the incidence of people living in poverty fell from more than …
This article argues that waste management and recycling have become regional or international issues; they can no longer be considered only in a national context. The regionalization or internationalization of waste and recycling issues is caused in large part by the steady advance of economic integration, especially increasing trade and …
The problems relating to mounting solid waste are fast acquiring gigantic proportions in the developing countries of Asia. Most of the countries, nevertheless, continue to primarily focus on achieving high economic growth and pay scant attention to waste management. This article takes a detailed look at the inadequacies of waste …
This dossier is located within the context of increasing global discontent and community protest against interventions of International Financial Institutions (IFIs) in the developing world. It specifically presents a questioning and critique of their operations in tourism. As the nature and impacts of tourism cross boundaries and affects entire regions, …
Over 55 per cent of Indians will live in urban areas by 2050, a big change from now when only about 30 per cent of the country's population is urban, according to projections in a United Nations report. In terms of numbers, over 900 million people in India will be …
Work has begun to repair three damaged undersea fibre-optic cables that were severed in the Mediterranean Sea and the Persian Gulf on January 30 and February 1. The cause of the cable break is yet to be confirmed and speculations are there that a ship's anchor was to blame. The …
Half of them will live in urban areas by end of 2008:U.N. Half the world's people will live in urban areas by the end of this year and about 70 per cent will be city dwellers by 2050, with cities and towns in Asia and Africa registering the biggest growth, …
Banpu Pcl, Thailand's biggest coal miner, expects prices of the raw material to set new records as demand growth in Asia, led by China and India, outpaces supply. India will raise purchases at a faster pace in the next two years, compared with 2007 and 2008, as the nation completes …
Central Asia is a difficult region, but with the right mix of political and financial capital, India could still make headway. If the great game over the energy resources of the Caspian Sea and Central Asia were to be compared to a five-act Shakespearean play, we might say Act III, …
>> In a non-binding report, the European Parliament has given more time to car manufacturers for reducing CO2 emissions from tailpipes. Manufacturers should reduce the emissions to 125 grammes per km by 2015, rather than to 120 grammes by 2012 as proposed by the commission in December, 2007. >> Two …
Investments aimed at improving agricultural adaptation to climate change inevitably favor some crops and regions over others. An analysis of climate risks for crops in 12 food-insecure regions was conducted to identify adaptation priorities, based on statistical crop models and climate projections for 2030 from 20 general circulation models.
This thesis is concerned with facilitating change leading to urban sanitation that is sustainable. It explores how developing Asian countries might arrive at arrangements for urban sanitation that can feasibly be sustained in the long term, as well as support sustainability in general. Urban sanitation in developing Asian countries face …
