Order of the High Court of Delhi in W.P.(C) 6444/2021 in the matter of Ratiram Ahirwar & Others Vs Delhi Building and Other Construction Workers Welfare Board & Others dated 13/07/2021. The Lieutenant Governor of Delhi in exercise of his power under Section 22 of the Building and Other Construction …
THERE are a variety of ways in which the North could support development in and by the South. I sometimes refer to them as the "AT&T-; mechanisms": aid, trade and technology transfer. All of these have been on the Northern agenda for decades now. The United Nations Conference on Environment …
A historic victory was achieved by Nepal's environmentalists and citizens' groups, when the World Bank announced on August 4 in Washington DC, that the proposed Bank loan to Nepars Arun IH dam project, which was cleared earlier, would be scrapped. Gopal Siwakoti of the Arun Concerned Group in Nepal said, …
Famine stares Africa in the face. And this time the situation is particularly bad because donor nations have severely slashed their aid programmes, says a special report prepared by the United Nation's Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). Thanks to a devastating drought, grain production in southern Africa had fallen by …
THE World Bank (WB) has devised a new strategy to improve the lot of the "poorest of the poor". Inspired by the success of the Grameen Bank in Bangladesh, which lends small amounts mostly to women - to set up smallscale businesses, it has pledged to channelise tiny loans to …
THE Netherlands is one of those rare nations actually spending 0.7 per cent of the gnp on development cooperation. But the country's aid programme has recently drawn renewed flak from its rightwingers. The criticism has been triggered by the minister of development cooperation, Jan Pronk. To the popular right-wing daily …
The I st phase of a women's small loan project concluded in Deukhuri, Kathmandu recently. Implemented by a group of local NGOs and supervised by the ministry of local development with the Asian Development Bank's finaneial assistance, this phase of the project was geared to encourage women to be thrifty …
THE Himalayan national park in the Kulu district of Himachal Pradesh has been chosen for a Rs 6.5 crore World Bank-aided project to conserve its existing biodiversity. The park, which covers an area of more than 700 sq km, provides sanctuary to some 300 species of birds (including pheasants and …
National budget constraints have forced leading donor nations like the us to cut assistance to developing countries down to almost 20 per cent in 1993-94. But Japan, the world's largest donor, has not followed suit. It has retained its overseas development assistance (oda) budget of us $11.3 billion, 1/5th of …
Big Daddy has finally been forced to sell himself. In what the Washington-based ngo Development Gap termed a "desperate and amateurish attempt at public relations", in May the World Bank (wb) paid to advertise itself through American newspapers. Washington's plans slashing its international aid has put the International Development Association, …
The European Union (eu), through its European Community Humanitarian Office (echo), wishes to establish itself as one of the principle providers of humanitarian assistance to politically troubled nations. The newest nation to avail of the eu's largesse is Haiti, which is limping back to democracy after a 3-year tryst with …
The greening of Bangladesh's coastline will commence soon. The Asian Development Bank has approved a US $23.4 million loan for a 7-year project for improving Bangladesh's forest cover and alleviating rural poverty by creating income opportunities. Under an aggressive reforestation drive spearheaded by Bangladeshi NGOs and the forestry department, landless …
THE proposed Mochovce nuclear power project in Slovakia has created much heat in Europe. A chain reaction of protests has been set off and the whole project has got entangled in a complicated maze of arguments and counter-arguments. Neighbouring Austria and environmental groups like the Greenpeace had already let off …
Western aid to developing countries has fallen to a 20-year low according to the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (oecd). In its annual report, the oecd warns that stagnant budgets could trigger a "vicious circle" of inadequate aid for development. There might be a drain on resources for the …
AS THE Global Environment Facility (GEF) moves beyond its pilot phase, cut-throat competition is generating a tide of proposals aimed at a slice of its US $2 billion pie. Ironically, the ministry of environment and forests (MEF), the nodal agency in the inter-ministerial committee (IMC) dealing with GEF, has only …
In a serious bid to tackle AIDS, the Union government has launched a Rs 222.6 crore World Bank-assisted plan for the prevention and control of the disease. Part of the funding for the multisectoral programme has come from a $84 million (about Rs 252 crore) soft loan from the WB, …
Health care might become a major plank of the World Bank's list of projects. This year, the Bank will lend at least US $60 million for "micro-nutrient projects" in various countries to combat vitamin a, iodine and iron deficiencies. The biggest project, to be funded along with un agencies, is …
THE Human Development Report 1994 of the United Nations Development Programme reveals that economic relationships between the North and the South remain as skewed as before. Development assistance or aid to developing countries from developed nations is often driven by political expediency, ideological confrontation and commercial self interest. Some of …
THE developed and the developing countries were locked in yet another standoff at the recent Asian Development Bank (ADB) meeting in Nice, France. At the heart of the dispute lay the insistence of industrialised countries, led by the US, that the ADB's capital increase be linked to a reorientation of …
Will the death of Gujarat chief minister Chimanbhai Patel affect the controversial Sardar Sarovar Project? Opponents of the dam feel that without Patel, who expired on February 17 following a cardiac arrest, the state government will be unable to attract the Rs 9,000 crore required for the project. J John, …
A MAJOR, Irangate-style controversy is building up over a L1 billion framework accord on military sales that is ostensibly linked to British aid in 1988 for the Pergau dam project in Malaysia. The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) has taken a dim view of Britain's aid policy and …
