The World Meteorological Organization’s State of the Climate in Asia 2024 report warns that the region is warming nearly twice as fast as the global average, driving more extreme weather and posing serious threats to lives, ecosystems, and economies. In 2024, Asia experienced its warmest or second warmest year on …
a major global study of the planet's ecosystems released on March 31, 2005 warns that human actions are depleting the Earth's natural capital at a pace that threatens the planet's ability to sustain future generations. The study is expected to provide scientific inputs for international conventions, mainly ecosystem-related conventions on …
The discussions on the Union budget 2005-2006 reflect the media's middle-class obsession. The finance minister's proposal for a fringe tax - on perquisites and other benefits of the salariat - was all that was found worth discussing. Nothing else mattered. But it should. The budget is about expenditure for development …
Even in remote villages, you can find shops providing tea and cigarettes/biris to the satisfaction of local consumers. But there are no schools, roads or drinking water. Now, we will all agree that schools and roads are more important than tea and cigarettes. Why, then, are lower-priority items well provided …
The sad state of public systems is the result of several, interrelated factors. Scarcity of resources, the most widely cited explanation, is an exaggerated alibi. Of course, the resources mobilised by the State are inadequate to meet costs of government and development expenditures (including maintenance and improvement of social services …
India has been enduring a tragedy for the past 250 years: government structures incongruous with the essential character of our traditional society, our samaaj, have been imposed on us. And this power of the State has only increased. That's why we see that the government machinery is incapable of delivering …
Another serious administrative crisis has come to the fore in Afghanistan with the resignation of the country's planning minister Ramazan Bashardoost on December 13, 2004, after the government refused to wrap up 2,000 national and international aid agencies working in the country. A week ago, Bashardoost had declared that 80 …
Last fortnight, I wrote about my visit to a governance graveyard called the Union ministry of environment and forests. I also promised to pen a few more thoughts on the subject. Given that the government cannot be trusted to manage the country's natural resource base - indeed, they can be …
This report examines greenhouse gas emissions at the global, national, sectoral, and fuel levels and identifies implications of the data for international cooperation on global climate change. Emissions are assessed within the broader socioeconomic context faced by countries, inclduing factors such as economic output, population size, trade, investment, and sectoral …
The terms of reference of the National Commission on Macroeconomics & Health, included among others, a critical appraisal of the present health system — both in the public and the private sector — and suggesting ways and means of further strengthening it with the specific objective of improving access to …
India's biological diversity act of 2002 is a reflection of the principles spelt out in the Convention of Biodiversity . It's also a response to the need to create sui generis legislation that can secure rights for traditional Indian communities in the face of wto strictures. There are other legislations …
Jobs are what all Indians want. Governments know this. But they do not know how to create jobs. The problem is that the much-touted mantra of economic growth does not generate jobs. In fact, the reverse is quite true: India suffers from the growth-without-jobs syndrome. Therefore in the last decade …
There is one strong view in the job-business: more growth will lead to more jobs. We have to invest in only economic growth and not in employment creation programmes and other sectors. This is what the NDA-created Ahluwalia Task Force had maintained then. It would not be surprising if Ahluwalia, …
STATUS: Generates 10 million jobs currently POTENTIAL: Can generate 8.6 million additional jobs if bamboo plantations are undertaken and high value artisanal and other products marketed HURDLE: Remains a monopoly of forest departments. Has to be given agriculture status to cultivate, harvest and sell Sandni, a village in Rajasthan's Chittorgarh …
STATUS: Employs 8 million people currently POTENTIAL: Even the existing capacity can absorb another 3 million people HURDLES: Lack of productive silkworms. Poor technology. No access to forests, limits the production of wild silk The shimmer of silk captivates even the most languid eye. But first, the cocoon of archival …
What is clear is that finding jobs in India demands a change in the way we do business. Let us be clear, the formal industrial sector has never provided employment in the country. With greater mechanisation in the years to come, its contribution towards generating employment is bound to decline …
STATUS: Generates 2.5 million jobs in Orissa alone POTENTIAL: High capacity for employment because India has several sal forests. Can generate another 2.5 million jobs in Orissa alone HURDLE: Forest laws restrict plucking of leaves For a mere Rs 300, 27-year-old Somnath Mohanta sells a cycle-load of sal (Shorea robusta) …
