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, …
a frightening dump of nuclear waste exists in the region around Murmansk in the Kola Peninsula. At least 70 idle nuclear-powered submarines of Russia's Northern Fleet, with reactors full of fuel on board, are anchored at the harbour. This large area of waste, documented in detail by Bellona, a Norwegian …
power shift: After making waves in the wind energy sector, the Madras-based NEPC group is all set to shine on the solar energy scene. The group holds 80 per cent of the market share in wind energy generation and is planning to invest about Rs 2,000 million in solar power …
Annual emissions of anthropogenic Hg to the atmosphere in different regions of the world during the last decade show an interesting dichotomy: the emissions in the developed countries increased at the rate of about 4.5–5.5% yr−1 up to 1989 and have since remained nearly constant, while in developing countries the …
The city of Sumgait which was an environmentalist's nightmare, is now looking up. Almost every factory in this heavily industrialised city had to close due to skyrocketing costs after the loss of the erstwhile Soviet markets and subsidies. This has given some solace to those who have suffered one of …
the world's first floating nuclear power plant, already under construction in Russia, will start operating by the year 2001. While Russian engineers are eagerly calculating its export potential, the project has sent alarming signals among environmentalists. They argue that the threat of ecological catastrophe from accidents caused by oil tankers …
AN ESTIMATED 35 million tonnes of methane goes up into the atmosphere each year, thanks to leaks in Russian gas pipelines and wellheads, says an unpublished report from Russian researchers. This comes to around a tenth of all anthropogenic emissions of the gas, second only to carbon dioxide as a …
RESEARCHERS have been trying to evolve a refrigerator that would cut down on power consumption and at the same time prevent the depletion of earth's ozone layer. Now, scientists from the Russian Institute of Light Alloys (VILS) in Moscow have successfully tested a new refrigerating unit that neither uses an …
AN UNUSUAL trade between three desperate countries in the central Asian region has meant that water will be bartered for gas and coal. The republics of Kyrgyzstan) Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan entered into an agreement in the first week of April to improve cross border deliveries of water and energy. The …
THE Russian Supreme Court's judgement was toud and clear: no to nuclear waste. And claiming a pat on its back was Greenpeace, the international environmental organisation, which had moved the Court on Russian plans to import nuclear waste from the western nations for reprocessing. The landmark judgement was all the …
WITH over 60 per cent of the world's reserves of non-tropical and largest stretch of boreal forests in the world, Russia holds the most important carbon pool in the northern hemisphere. A recent decision by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization to include the virgin forests of Russia's …
A CONTRACT between Russian, American and Japanese organisations, to hasten a long-awaited radiation clean-up, was signed in Moscow last month. This incident may mark the first concrete step taken by the concerned parties towards solving the staggering problem of radiation pollution off the Pacific coast of Russia in the Far …
HECTIC work is going on in order tominimi5e the consequences of anotherMajor oil spill in Russia. An accident atthe Tiiimazy-Omsk-Novosibirsk oilpipelinenear Ufa in Bashkortostan onDecember 26has contaminated theBelaya river which also runs through theneighbouring republic of Tatarstan.Bashkortostan environment ministerRustern Khamitov initially said thatonly 100 toifnes of oil had been discharged …
THE erstwhile -cold war between, the us and Russia seems to have given way to a war over chickens! If a threatened Russian poultry ban takes effect, yankee chickens may no longer be welcome in Russia. Apparently, Russians are holding out the ban threat -as a measure to protect Russian …
FOR certain US investors, it makes more sense to create money rather than thinking green. Why else would they hit upon the horrifying idea of felling trees in Siberia, which contains a fifth of the world's forests, to procure lumber to run idle sawmills in Oregon and Washington? Russian trees …
The last two remaining stocks of the dreaded smallpox virus in Russia and US will now be destroyed by June 30, 19", if all the members of the World Health Organisation (WHO) agree on its elimination. The annual meeting of the WHO board which is to be held in May …
AN OIL spill from an ageing section of the Nurlino-Novosibirsk pipeline, running along the Belaya river in the Russian region of Bashkortostan, which was earlier thought to be of meagre dimensions, is now assuming gigantic proportions. While it was believed that the leak, which was discovered just before the New …
CASH-STRAPPED Russians want to make money out of Mir, their station in space. Their proposal to raise funds is to make the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) officials use Mir, which will outlive its usefulness sometime in the late '90s, for all activities until Alpha, the us space station, …
IN A damning revelation, Bellona, the Norwegian environmental group, has disclosed that dozens of Russian nuclear ftiel containers carrying a large amount of radioactive matter which had been dumped by the Russian navy more than 30 years ago, have been found near the Norwegian borders . The shocking evidence, kept …
A HIGH-altitude Russian spy plane has been donated to western European scientists for studying ozone layer depletion over the Arctic region. Russia will provide the European Science Foundation in Strasbourg with (;eophysika, a specially transmuted version of the Mvasishchev Ni-55 aircraft, having an instrument bay capable of carrying more Than …
WITH energy in perpetual short supply, the Armenian government has decided to restart the Metsamor nuclear reactor which was closed down in 1988 following a devastating earthquake. Reviving the 407 MW reactor is a desperate measure for the state which is facing ruin due to the seven-year-old undeclared war with …
