This paper presents a status report of the BRICS nations (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa) on two crucial development parameters—inequality and poverty—that have a significant bearing on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs; especially SDG-1 and SDG-10). The paper tracks the origins and movements of absolute and relative poverty, …
Sidelining widespread complaints, Russia's natural resources minister Yurii Trutnev has supported his government's move to ban the access of foreign companies to the country's mineral resources. Trutnev's ministry had recently proposed a draft amendment to the natural resources law. It included a ban on foreign companies from participating in tenders …
water distress: The Andhra Pradesh government has embarked upon a new programme to meet the water requirements of its parched villages. It is forcibly taking over private agricultural borewells to supply drinking water. Media reports quoted officials as saying that 528 borewells have already been taken over. The government is …
The bite seems to be absent from the winter over much of Russia and Europe this year. Temperatures have been eight to nine degrees higher than normal in Russia, according to Roman Vilfant, head of the Gidromettentr weather monitoring centre. "The first ten days of January have been very warm,' …
Turkmenistan is trying to cash in on Russia's and Ukraine's need for its gas during the severe winter. It has stopped gas supplies to the two countries, saying it wants to negotiate a new price. "The gas pressure gauge at Daryalyk compressor station (DCS)stands at zero mark now,' said a …
with Russia's ratification of the Kyoto Protocol, the treaty to cut greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions is back on track. But, what collective action can be expected in the future to combat climate change? At the Tenth Conference of Parties (cop-10) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (unfccc) …
russian president Vladimir Putin signed the resolution pertaining to Russia's ratification of the Kyoto Protocol on November 4, 2004. Earlier, both houses of the Russian parliament voted in favour of the treaty with little debate. Russia's ratification will now enable the enforcement of the treaty, which aims to curtail greenhouse …
the Kyoto Protocol on global warming is just a step away from becoming an international law. On September 30, 2004, a major hurdle was crossed when the Russian cabinet approved the treaty and sent it to the lower house of parliament, the Duma, for approval. The Duma would take up …
Trade interests always reign supreme, usually disastrously so: the Rotterdam Convention on hazardous chemicals might soon be rendered purposeless if the trend spearheaded by Russia and Canada at the convention's first Conference of Parties (cop-1), held on September 20-24 in Geneva, is any indication. The two countries, along with India …
THE Russian president, Vladimir Putin, has decided to ratify the Kyoto Protocol (it seeks to stabilise greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere). That should soon propel the languishing pact into force, making it international law, once he has sought the Russian Duma's approval (see Almost there). But the pact would …
In Moscow, a celebration. One date symbolically sutured the two Russian cities: June 27. On that day, in 1954, the world’s first nuclear power station hummed into life in Obninsk, producing electricity till 2002. On that day 50 years later, 500 scientists and policy makers from 32 countries attended the …
India's nuclear power programme is also entering a crucial phase. Every challenge for the next 50 years the conference debated, India has to face and sort out before running the nuclear path. It needs to do that fast because it is just beginning to take its nuclear power programme seriously. …
Would it be cynical to interpret the conference's call to revive the nuclear power sector as hardsell? No. The present is as opportune a moment as can be. And for two sets of reasons. For one, 70 per cent of the world's 442 nuclear reactors will have turned utterly geriatric …
Four problems bedevil the nuclear energy sector: proliferation, political coyness over technology options that discourage proliferation, radioactive waste, and
russia finally seems inclined to ratify the Kyoto Protocol, the international treaty to tackle climate change. But as a quid pro quo, the country has struck a deal with the eu that will bring it closer to World Trade Organization (wto) membership. For the protocol to become a legally binding …
RUSSIA is to support the Kyoto Protocol, now President Putin says. He's said it before, and not supported it. The latest statement may therefore be some more
russian researchers have evolved a new theory on how tornadoes form. They claim that nanoscale structures of thunderstorms produce a rapid electricity charge, sending the storms into a spin, and thereby forming tornadoes. Twisters, as tornadoes are often called, are nature's fiercest storms, leading to thousands of deaths every year …
What looked like a boon has turned into a nightmare for the 130 farming families in the Caucasus village of Khaishi, Georgia. They feel cheated out of the us $330,000 that an oil company owed them for using their land to lay a 1,600-kilometre-long pipeline. The reason: the village head …
Could oil be the reason for the European Investment Bank (eib) giving a loan to Russia for a wastewater treatment plant? Pursuant to a decision taken by the European Council in Stockholm, the eib will give over us $31 million to the St Petersburg water company, Vodokanal, for the South …
Addressing a meeting of Russian and European Union (eu) business leaders early this month, President Vladimir Putin said that "we often unfortunately face excessively tough requirements, which are blocking Russia's entrance into the wto [World Trade Organization]'. Russia is the largest economy outside the wto and has been trying to …
Cancun: a paper tiger jurgen maier The strategy of the European Union (eu) did seem to be transformed in the conference centres of Cancun. A coherent eu policy is non-existent. Europe is deeply divided between the American satellites (the uk, Spain and Italy) and the Gaullist camp (France, Germany and …
