Nearly 65% of adults in the Arab region remain excluded from formal financial systems, according to a new report by the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA). The Annual SDG Review 2025 paints a sobering picture of persistent financial exclusion that is undermining the region’s ability …
On September 22, 2004, the World Bank (wb) officially unveiled its Country Strategy (cas) for India. That very day, a draft critique of the bank’s strategy
www.ifiwatch.tv Faced with the bleak choice of an urban slum or a distant resettlement site, an Indian family chooses to stay and drown rather than make way for the Narmada dam. Such is the focus of one of the sixty documentaries available through
as the world begins celebrating the Wildlife Week on October 1, wild animals at the Pune-based Uttaraj Animal Rescue and Rehabilitation Centre (uarrc), many of them injured, would lose their shelter on that day. The centre, located within the Katraj Snake Park, is one of the largest in India. Its …
The prospect of an "employment guarantee act' strikes terror in the heart of many fiscal experts. A full-fledged employment guarantee programme is likely to cost between one and two per cent of India's gross domestic product (gdp). This might be a small price to pay to protect the bulk of …
though the India Meteorological Department (imd) could not predict the erratic mid-course behaviour of the southwest monsoon this year, it might actually benefit from this failure! The imd's inability to foresee a shortfall of rains in July, the month of sowing of kharif crops, has prompted Union minister of state …
Brazil Science communication is changing in Brazil. Newspapers are handling financial crunch by sacking science reporters, but public and private organisations are creating new positions to popularise science, says the Science Development Network. "The Brazilian press is in crisis and the market for science journalism continues to decrease in our …
The United Nations (UN) is set to take center-stage in the longstanding controversy over new sources of innovative funding for the world's poorer nations. The proposals on the table include a carbon tax on fuel use, the
function graph() { var popurl="image/20040731/8-graph.jpg" winpops=window.open(popurl,"","width=600,height=500,scrollbars=yes") } finance minister (fm) P Chidambaram's budget for 2004-2005 is actually the interim budget presented by his predecessor Jaswant Singh of the National Democratic Alliance (nda). There are minor variations in allocations. The two exceptions are defence (an additional Rs 11,700 crore) and the …
THERE is something rotten in the debate on direct rural development funding to the districts (see: "Devolution meet a damp squib"). First, let's look at how the Union government approaches the issue. It is tired of state governments' steady refusal to decentralise real power
• 50 per cent of the people in the least developed countries (LDCs) live on less than US $1 a day. In 2000, this group totalled 334 million. By 2015, they could be 471 million • Such poverty levels limit their ability to generate domestic resources. In 28 LDCs, the …
IN 1993, India's members of Parliament (MPs) decided they weren't doing enough for the constituencies that had sent them to the country's seat of legislative power. Speedily, the Members of Parliament Local Area Development Scheme (MPLADS) was hatched: each MP began to receive Rs 2 crore annually to spend on …
Brazil wants the International Monetary Fund (imf) to consider money utilised for science as infrastructure investment rather than current expenditure. If the imf buys this argument, Brazil could substantially increase its allocation for science-related matters. The country's science minister, Eduardo Campos, has even appealed to the United Nations Educational, Scientific …
During the recently held un Commission on Sustainable Development meet (csd-12) at New York, most developing countries were crying hoarse over lack of basic data and financial resources to meet the millennium development goal (mdg) of sanitation by 2015 (see: 'Another opportunity lost', Down To Earth, May 31, 2004). But …
The World Bank (wb) has approved its largest ever environmental grant for the Indian Ocean island of Madagascar. The funds, amounting to us $49 million, are meant to help the country in protecting its unique environment and native species. Madagascar, the world's fourth largest island, has an array of flora …
a report published by wwf-Germany shows that some of the most renowned banking institutes of the world are financing environmental and social disasters. During the assessment, German, Dutch and Swiss banks were rated according to their environmental and social standards for investments. They were ranked as per their existing standards, …
This question was asked in an official letter in February this year. The letter had a genesis: an unprecedented gathering of nearly 50,000 people from Meghalaya's tribal communities at Smit, West Khasi Hills. Heeding the call of chiefs, people endorsed on January 14 this year a historical "People's Budget'. Filling …
Last year, Congress chief minister Digvijay Singh lost the Madhya Pradesh (MP) state elections. Two years before, the Communist-led coalition lost in Kerala. Since both governments had fervently promoted decentralisation, questions naturally come to the fore: Was their defeat a vote against the move towards local governance and devolution of …
on October 31, 2002, the Supreme Court of India directed the central government to link the country's major rivers by 2015. The government responded with unprecedented enthusiasm. The National Water Development Authority (nwda) has proposed a national river grid and has identified 30 river links, which would connect every major …
