The IMF’s April 2025 Regional Economic Outlook for Sub-Saharan Africa presents a clear warning: regional growth is slowing, debt pressures are mounting, and donor assistance is declining. Yet the report outlines critical opportunities particularly in domestic revenue mobilization, structural reform, and private sector activation that can shape a more resilient …
The Uttar Pradesh government in 1996 (now Uttaranchal) started an ambitious tea plantation programme, which was to be spread across 12,000 hectares (ha). It included a series of tea estates to aid the state's economy and provide farmers with an additional source of income. Now, after 10 years, out of …
a shameful scam has been perpetrated in the hills of Uttaranchal. Some years before the new state was inaugurated the then Uttar Pradesh government conceived a grandiose scheme of acquiring 12,000 hectares of land to launch a number of tea estates. Thankfully, it now appears, most of the plan remained …
In the Banni region of Kutch, western Gujarat, there is a move to turn back the ecological clock. It will take unusual means and Banni, a 2,900-sq-km area, which once epitomised greenery, may never be the same. But, there is hope still that the damage done to what once claimed …
the prime minister's Trade and Economic Relations Committee (terc) has , recently, given the green light for the implementation of the free trade agreement (fta) with the Association of South East Asian Nations (asean) from January 1, 2007. The Indo- asean free trade agreement is the biggest trade pact India …
function table() { var popurl="image/20060430/47-table.jpg" winpops=window.open(popurl,"","width=400,height=350,scrollbars=yes") } "We don't want any free clothes, education or even food. All we want are our lands and forests,' demands Karrian. The 60-year-old from Devalaya hamlet of Gudalur taluka in Tamil Nadu's Nilgiri district belongs to the Panniya tribe. Anthropologists classify this tribe as …
1805: Nilambur Kovilgam, a ruler of a Kerala province, annexes 40,500 ha of Gudalur 1845: Kovilagam's successors (jenmies) start leasing out land to plantation companies. They also employ tenants to cultivate land directly under their control 1940s: Migration from Kerala; migrants are employed as tenants in jenmi lands 1950s and …
a division Bench of Kerala High Court has once again directed the state government to conduct another epidemiological study in the cashew plantation areas in Kerala and trace out the factors responsible for health problems in areas such as Padre and Cheemeni in Kasaragod district. The areas were badly affected …
Exim Bank's latest study titled 'Vanilla and its Potential in India" observed that with certain policy intervention by Government of India and with more and more private and public partnership, India can emerge as significant player in the global vanilla industry. With higest price realizations amongst spices and comparatively low …
At Padpu, Padre village, Kasargod district, Kerala, there is a ritual every November to honour the snake god. Many in the area also believe that the ritual celebrates the origin of the Kodenkeri thodu (stream) in a patch of sacred forests near Padre, right beneath the cashew plantation-rich hills of …
The gains made by Kerala through the land reform measures of the 1950s may be undone if the attempts at changing the limit on landholding and introducing contract farming by multinational companies are allowed to succeed. Kerala often boasts of the most radical land reforms law in the country. The …
an exotic fungus may help save your favourite cup of tea. Scientists are planning to introduce a rust fungus to combat a weed that is strangling India's tea crops all over Assam and Darjeeling. However, the biological agent to kill Mikania micrantha may not be as good as claimed
A major conservation issue, particularly in the tropics, is habitat loss and fragmentation due to developmental activities and increasing human populations. Ecologists today recognise that much of the once pristine forests that are now secondary forests, as well as large areas outside existing conservation resources, harbouring significant levels of biological …
It was in February 2001 that Down To Earth broke the story. A link was established between the unusually high incidence of deformities and diseases in Padre
The protest against endosulfan in Kerala has become a symbol of struggle against pesticides in India. The pesticide industry is worried about endosulfan as much as it is of its other products. As Dave proudly puts it, "I do not defend just one molecule. I am the president for 200 …
In August 2001, the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) asked the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) to submit a report on the health hazards due to the spraying of endosulfan in cashew plantations in Kasaragod district within four months. ICMR in turn asked the National Institute of Occupational Health …
Pesticides are regulated under the Insecticides Act of 1968 and Insecticides Rules of 1971. In May 2000, the Insecticide (Amendment) Bill 2000, was passed under the shadow of suicide deaths of farmers because of spurious pesticides. This amendment made the punishment for adulterated pesticides more stringent. But it did little …
WHEN too many words clamour with each other and obfuscate the contours of a discourse, images perhaps remain the lone source of strength for people. Recovering this primal force of images, photographer Madhuraj of Mathrubhumi daily and Bhagyanathan, an artist in Kannur, have brought together many images from the land …
The Anamalai, a hill range in southern India named after the Asian elephant Elephas maximus, contains the second largest population of this endangered flagship species in India. Within this region lies the Valparai plateau, a 200 km
Asia accounts for 62 per cent of the world's plantations. With 89 per cent of the new plantations coming up in the continent, they are increasingly becoming the source of debate and conflicts. Who owns them and who derives benefits from these? Are they grown to reforest wasteland or are …
