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 …
Many international organisations have expressed concern for the people to be displaced by the Sardar Sarovar dam project on the Narmada in Gujarat, but the fate of those already ousted by other dams on the river goes unnoticed. Recently, one of them, 65-year-old Sunderbai, died of starvation a few months …
Seeking to regain its political base among the tribals in western Madhya Pradesh, the Bharatiya Janata Party has switched from championing the World Bank-funded Narmada dam -- its policy when it was in power -- and now wants the project to be reviewed. Party secretary Govindacharya, who recently inspected rehabilitation …
Despite hectic campaigning by the groups opposed to the Narmada dam plus a hefty boost from the anti-dam salvo fired by Bradford Morse and Thomas Berger, who formed a two-member independent review commission, the World Bank has taken a decision to continue funding the Sardar Sarovar project. However, in April …
INDIA is lobbying hard and activists are stepping up pressure as the World Bank prepares to take a decision in October on a suggestion to "suspend" but not terminate aid for the Sardar Sarovar Project on the Narmada river. Two Indian delegations visited the US, the UK, Japan, the Netherlands, …
SCIENCE and environment are a real no-no for India's leading video newsmagazines, Newstrack and Eyewitness, which have a substantial following among this country's educated, English- speaking middle-class. Operating on the belief that such subjects, however newsy, are a turn-off for the viewer, neither newsmagazine has picked up even as enduring …
THANKS to poor rainfall in the area, the fear of Manibeli being inundated by monsoon-fed waters of the Narmada has receded temporarily. According to Narmada Bachao Andolan (NBA) activists, work on the dam seems to have slowed down considerably and they estimate the height of the dam now at about …
HOW DO you go beyond mere attempts to evoke pity and outrage in films that purport to be about conflicts between common people and the state? It is so easy to make these: Let the camera pan from one lamenting tribal to another, sweep over their habitat, still picturesque despite …
NOTHING seems to move them, the planners of misery and destruction in the Narmada Valley. Not entreaties, not scientific arguments, not reason, not 23-day hunger fasts, not 40,000-strong demonstrations, not even the possibility of entire communities drowning in their refusal to move out of their ancestral lands when the reservoir …
IT IS IRONIC that during the same week in June in which the World Bank emerged from Rio as the major funding mechanism to clean up the world's environment and implement Agenda 21, the Morse report revealed to the world the chronic institutional failures of the bank to promote environmentally …
THE MORSE committee has asked the World Bank to step back from the Sardar Sarovar project. Whether the bank complies or not, the committee has undoubtedly delivered a resounding indictment of all those involved in the project -- from the governments of Gujarat and India to the mighty World Bank. …
THE ENGLISH say that the month of March comes in like a lion and goes out like a lamb. The same may be said about the much awaited Morse Report. The findings are strong and declare that all is definitely NOT well with the SSP. The recommendations are, to put …
THE REPORT of the Independent Review (RIR) of the Sardar Sarovar was expected to look at Sardar Sarovar and other projects on the Narmada not only from the viewpoint of displacement and rehabilitation, but more holistically to see whether submergence itself could be reduced to manageable proportions. Instead, the committee …
AT THE outset, I would like to mention that I have not been able to read the Morse report. My opinions are based on the summaries of the report that have been published in the newspapers. I find the report disappointing in the sense of not "being well done". Going …
IT IS TIME the government of India set up a high-powered committee of experts to take a decision on the Narmada project. As far as the work on the project is concerned, I frankly cannot say whether the work should be stopped. It is a very technical matter and experts …
I HAVE not seen the Morse report. So I cannot comment on its specifics. But I have some general observations to make on the Narmada project and other issues of this kind. I believe that rehabilitation and resettlement must precede the launching of a project and not follow it. Secondly, …
THE RIR had raised considerable expectations in western India. The report, however, came as a damp squib. The only substantive comment made by the report relates to basic hydrology, which states, "We found that there is good reason to believe that the project will not perform as planned." The reference …
THERE is considerable speculation amongst the anti-Narmada activists as to how the recent clashes between the police and the villagers of Manibell will influence the attitude of the principal financiers of the dam, the World Bank and Japan. Medha Patkar of the Narmada Bachao Andolan (NBA) did not look happy …
