Already the poorest country in Asia, Afghanistan’s economic base has long been too small to support its population of 40 million. Annual per capita income had declined from US$650 in 2012 to US$508 in 2020 and is expected to drop precipitously to US$350 next year. The report indicates that the …
Seeking to work aggressively to secure its aim of energy security, India has decided to formally join the strategic U.S.-backed $3.5 billion Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI) gas pipeline project this week. Before leaving for Pakistan on Tuesday afternoon, Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister, Murli Deora told journalists here that the Indian delegation …
The United States is working with international donors to realise supply of electricity from energy-rich Central Asian region to Afghanistan and Pakistan, a senior US official said Tuesday. Richard Boucher, the top US official for South Asia, told a Congressional hearing that trade in electricity can benefit both sides, providing …
Hameed Ansari couldn't have better timed his first visit abroad after becoming Vice-President. A month after his Turkmenistan visit, which began on Friday, India could formally become a member of the proposed gas pipeline running through Afghanistan and Pakistan before reaching Fazilka on the Indian side. Earlier this month, project …
The Sulabh toilets are located in five of the most congested areas of Kabul. They are an important contribution to Kabul's non-existent sanitary facilities.
As parts of Afghanistan are facing the harshest winter in 25 years, 882 people have died since December as a result of sub-zero temperatures, snow and cold-related respiratory diseases, the Afghanistan National Disasters Management Authority said on February 14. Over 170,000 patients with pneumonia and other acute respiratory infections have …
Dr BK Mukhopadhyay Food, beyond any shade of doubt, is the first need of all living beings. If we look back to history, it can be located that the inter-cultural movement of crops and livestock breeds revolutionized and reduced poverty. Africa gave the world coffee
A deadly new and virulent fungus capable of affecting wheat crop has been detected in Iran, a major cereal growing area in West Asia. The fungus was previously found in East Africa and Yemen and has now moved to Iran, according to Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO). The fungus is …
Eight SAARC countries have agreed to work jointly to tackle the region's illegal wildlife trade that has assumed alarming proportions. The countries have come under the banner of the South Asia Co-operative Environment Programme (SACEP), an inter-governmental organisation, to tackle the illegal trade. The South Asian region is a storehouse …
Munich: India on Sunday said it faces threats from countries that are "authoritarian, anti-democratic and anti-secular' and voiced concern over d a n g e r s posed by nu cl e a r weapons in the hands of "volatile states', in an apparent reference to Pakistan. Highlighting South Asia's …
The South Asia Media Commission has declared 2007 a very difficult year for South Asian journalists. The year saw 25 journalists and media workers getting killed in the line of duty. Besides, the media had to face "unprecedented restrictions and forced closures' in Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Afghanistan. The report, …
Although postconflict Afghanistan has some of the worst health indicators in theworld, the government is working hard to rebuild the health infrastructure, extend services to underserved areas and improve the quality of health services. An outbreak of cholera that struck Kabul and spread nationwide in 2005, prompted a collaborative response …
afghan debt relief: Afghanistan was recently granted interim debt relief meant for impoverished countries with heavy debt. Under the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries Initiative, Afghanistan will now have its net public and private debt payments cut by 51 per cent so that more funds can be utilised for healthcare, education …
pakistan floods: Floods caused by cyclone Yemyin and rain devastated southwestern Pakistan in the last week of June. As of July 1, 2007, official reports claim 100 people were dead with thousands missing and homeless. The government has appealed for donations of tents to shelter the homeless. Many casualties had …
Afghanistan is once again under pressure from the us government to implement a controversial counter-narcotics plan for eradication of its poppy fields. As per the us plan, Afghanistan should spray poppy fields with a crop-killing herbicide, much as is done with coca in Colombia, and develop new sources of income …
Refugee concern: A recent report by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and the Pakistan government says that about 82 per cent of registered Afghan refugees in Pakistan have no intention to return to their homeland in the near future. Security threats in Afghanistan are a major reason for …
>> At 2 am on March 11, 2007 (0700 GMT), the US pushed forward the hands on its clocks by an hour. The shift came three weeks earlier than usual. Normally US clocks "spring forward' on the first Sunday of April and "fall back' on the last Sunday of October. …
gpei began in 1988. The polio eradication programme involved administering multiple doses of the oral polio vaccine to all children in affected areas. The doses were administered in pulses: all children below the age of three in an area were inoculated simultaneously. us $5 billion have been spent under the …
Afghanistan's opium harvest this year has reached the highest levels recorded, showing an increase of 49 per cent from last year. The un office on Drugs and Crime (unodc) has described the figures as "alarming' and "very bad news' for the Afghan government and other international donors, who have poured …
The Baltic Sea is threatened by a major environmental crisis unless the Russian-German gas pipeline, planned to carry Russian gas to Europe along its seabed, is re-directed to pass overland, said Swedish prime minister Goran Persson at a recent meeting on the Baltic island of Gotland. Persson warned that the …
