This report summarizes the findings of a review aimed at understanding emerging approaches to energy subsidy reform, discerning trends, and identifying major strands of thinking and research in the field, as reflected in major policy and academic journals relevant to the subject. The review was initiated in early 2020 as …
What has been the impact of the Public Distribution System (PDS) on Ladakhi agriculture? The subsidy culture has definitely killed local agriculture in Ladakh. What international trade distortions are doing to Indian agriculturethe subsidy system is doing to Ladakhi agriculture. It is exactly the same as industrialised countries dumping their …
Padma Wangyal, 29, is quite an exception. His grandfather pioneered the cooperative societies movement in Ladakhi agriculture. In a region where the average landholding is a mere 1.38 hectares, Wangyal's family owns about 20 hectares. Wangyal attended school and college in Delhi. Like most young Ladakhis, he dreamt of joining …
In Ladakh, the rest of India is referred to as down . Because, at no point in Leh district would you be less than about three kilometres above the mean sea level. This vast barren district is more than 45,000 square kilometre (sq km); it is perhaps India's largest and …
Subsidies are recognised worldwide as a serious threat to sustainable fisheries management. They distort international fish trade and penalise developing country fishers whose governments cannot afford to provide them subsidies. The debate on the size and impacts of subsidies intensified after the Food and Agricultural Organization reported in 1992 that …
THE tone and tenor of the failed Fifth World Trade Organization (WTO) Ministerial Conference in Cancun found an echo in the annual meetings of the World Bank (WB) and International Monetary Fund (IMF) in Dubai from September 20 to 22. The developing countries reiterated their demand that the industrialised world …
At Cancun (“snakepit” in Spanish), it was widely expected that negotiations on agriculture would make or break the talks. However, delegates were quick to point to two other issues as equally damaging: (a) the manner in which the Cotton Initiative was methodically dismissed by the US; and (b) the poisonous …
What kind of ripples were let loose by the breakdown of talks? Celso Amorim, Brazil's minister of external relations and leader of the G-22 group, felt that the lack of engagement (of developing nations) in the Singapore issues, which mirrored the lack of engagement (of the developed world) on agriculture, …
The first day of a multilateral conference involving most of the world’s nations is usually spent on procedural matters. So it was at Cancun, Mexico, where the Fifth Ministerial Conference of the World Trade Organization (WTO) was held from September 11 to September 14, 2003. After the usual ceremonial inauguration, …
RECENTLY Arun Jaitley identified agriculture and investment as the two main issues for next month's World Trade Organization ministerial conference in Cancun, Mexico. (Jaitley is India's union minister of commerce and industry, and head of the Indian delegation to Cancun.) He isn't off target. The US, the world's largest agricultural …
China is tightening norms toprotect scientific and technological research within its boundaries. The country's ministry of science and technology wants all public and private organisations involved in state-funded research to have special departments and funds for intellectual property protection. Moreover, institutes will have to investigate beforehand if a patent has …
why should four per cent of the agricultural workforce (mostly affluent) in high-income countries reap the rich harvest of an international trade regime, when 70 per cent farmers (predominantly indigent) in developing countries get a raw deal under the same pact? This is a question member nations will be hard …
This document contains text of the Electricity Act, 2003 [No. 36 OF 2003]. An Act to consolidate the laws relating to generation, transmission, distribution, trading and use of electricity and generally for taking measures conducive to development of electricity industry, promoting competition therein, protecting interest of consumers and supply of …
The export of fish and fish products from India is not a post-Independence phenomenon. Fish export statistics are available from mid-nineteenth century onwards. Princely states like Travancore and Cochin had vibrant export trade. Dried fish and prawns, fish oil, shark fins, sea cucumber, fishmeal
function opencover(){ var popurl="html/20030430_cover.htm" winpops=window.open(popurl,"","width=450,height=500,scrollbars=yes") } America’s administrators have seriously slipped up. Today us foreign policy stands exposed in all its Neanderthal crudity. This comes as no surprise to those observing the superpower in the arena of global environmental negotiations although the mainstream media has done a remarkably good job …
Last fortnight I wrote about the different models of water privatisation. Questions continue to haunt me, but let me try and work towards some resolution. Firstly, there is the issue of pricing of water for the relatively rich of the developing world. It is evident that urban and industrial sectors …
the recent discussions on world trade-related issues in Tokyo progressed along expected lines: they came a cropper. Ministers from Australia, Canada, Brazil, India, Kenya, South Korea, the us and the uk could not reconcile their differences over contentious agricultural trade issues during the three-day informal talks in February. The immediate …
the Genetic Engineering Approval Committee (geac) categorically rejected for the second time in five months a request by two North-based aid agencies to allow the import of 23,000 tonnes of genetically modified (gm) corn-soya blend into India. Permission was denied because it was felt that the consignment could be contaminated …
Dhanpao village: Two patches of land adjacent to each other. Wheat is sown on both tracts. But while one yields numerous saplings, the other is barren. The reason: organic manure was used in the lush green field to grow ginger before wheat was planted. Lachiwala village: A mound of organic …
An evaluation of the Government of India's NPIC (National Programme of Improved Cookstoves) was undertaken in six states to learn lessons and assess impediments to future stoves programmes. The programmes were assessed on the basis of stove design, consumer satisfaction, capacity for quality control, and the role of subsidies in …
