The Bay of Bengal (BoB) region is emerging as an important focal point for climate security risks. This is largely due to a multi-layered interplay of geopolitical, geostrategic, and climate-related regional dynamics. It forms the final leg between West and East Asia. The region is one of the most climate-vulnerable …
Myanmar's military junta has dramatically raised the annual fee for tv satellite dishes, an apparent move to block the foreign news channels that beamed in global criticism of its recent crackdown on pro-democracy protests. An official at Myanmar Post and Telecom, the country's regulatory authority, confirmed as much. He said …
diplomatic roadshow: Bangladesh and Myanmar recently signed a deal to construct the first major road between the two countries. The 25-km road is part of an Asian super highway to boost bilateral trade. It is hoped it will eventually connect India, Thailand and China. In another development, India plans to …
the World Health Organization (who) along with its Stop tb partnership programme, announced on June 22 guidelines to curb two forms of tuberculosis: multidrug resistant tuberculosis (mdr-tb) and the more harmful extensively drug resistant tuberculosis (xdr-tb). The move comes on the heels of increased concerns about spread of xdr-tb, which …
This publication provides policy-makers and project personnel with tools to assess present energy flows and future energy scenarios. It uses a geographic information system to generate and manage data independently of political boundaries, integrating and analysing relationships among socio-economic and environmental variable and facilitates the identification of priority areas and …
As an animal high on popularity charts, the tiger has fascinated and awed generations for centuries. However, with its range confined to 14 Asian countries today, its distribution has more than halved and so have its numbers. With the tiger facing a serious challenge in its entire distribution range, the …
As a part of major reforms for the fishery sector, 14 countries agreed to cut trawling and push net fishing to reverse the growing production of low-value
The Association of South-East Asian Nations (asean) recently signed a trade agreement with the us, which experts say will lead to more trade and investment alliances between the two regions . The agreement was signed between the us trade representative Susan Schwab and ministers of the 10 asean countries (Brunei, …
With Bangladesh playing hardball on the Myanmar-India gas pipeline, India has decided to go ahead with the project by bypassing its neighbour's territory. A route through Bangladesh would have been shorter and so cheaper. But Bangladesh was demanding too high a price. Among its numerous demands were reducing the huge …
Northeast Students' Organisation (NESO) has launched a campaign among the tribal communities of northeastern states against the proposed tri-nation Indo-Myanmar gas pipeline that will run from Sittwe in Myanmar's Akaran state to Bihar through Bangladesh, Tripura, Assam and Mizoram. neso, a platform of seven student organisations in the region, has …
A fake malaria drug caused a death in Myanmar recently. A patient went to a rural hospital in east Myanmar where he was diagnosed with falciparum malaria and treated with the anti-malarial drug artesunate. The drug is usually effective, yet it led to the patient's death. The drug was reportedly …
India has begun re-negotiating with Myanmar for the transfer of natural gas through Bangladesh, after China stole a march over it last year. A delegation of state-owned gail (India) Limited and ongc Videsh Limited was in Myanmar on May 2-3 to present options of several alternative pipelines. They will stay …
It is not just China’s economy that is growing phenomenally. An aggressive afforestation policy, put in place in 2000, has seen large tracts being covered by trees every year. But afforestation efforts are no match for China’s growing demand for wood
The tropical monsoon rhythm for over centuries obviously occasioned the development of water works which facilitated wet rice cultivation in pre-modern Southeast Asia. The small-scale water works, purely an outcome of local initiative which survived for many centuries and outlived the state, were developed in the dry zone of Irrawaddy …
The Greater Mekong Subregion (GMS) is a global biodiversity hotspot and contains a number of "Global 200 ecoregions' identified globally by WWF. Much of the area, especially along the Greater Annamite Mountains, is biologically unexplored. The climate, geology and ecology of the six GMS countries are very similar. The countries …
tsunami Answerability: Sri Lanka's president Chandrika Kumaratunga has got an inquiry initiated into the government's failings in averting the destruction caused by the tsunami waves on December 26, 2004. She has appointed a retired Supreme Court judge to conduct the probe. The inquiry will try to find out if government …
Safe Shrimps Antibiotics are good in medicines but not in shrimps. The government insists "there is no trace of the antibiotic nitrofuran in its shrimp exports to the European Union (eu).' This announcement came after the eu decided to test shrimp from Vietnam, Myanmar and Thailand for illegal chemicals. The …
Unquiet woods With the ban and without access to forest revenue, Northeast economy is in doldrums THERE is an unusual quietness in the forests of India's northeast, arguably the country's best timberlands and one of the world's biodiversity hotspots. Brought about by the Supreme Court's blanket ban on tree felling …
