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 …
Contaminant levels of pocs have been established in various foods in countries such as India, Thailand and Vietnam. Concentrations of a number of pocs exceed the recommended maximum residue limits set by the World Health Organisation (who) and Food and Agricultural Organisation (fao) for various food items in India. Overall …
Despite increasing growth in food production, food security remains a problem. If the available food energy were evenly distributed within each country, 33 countries would not have been able to assure sufficient food energy (2,200 calories/person/day) during 1990-92. Over 20 per cent of the developing world's population was chronically undernourished …
International law is heading rapidly towards protecting the environment; it will gradually replace the initiative taken by national governments to base such laws on national public opinion. Between 1946, when the International Convention for the Regulation of Whaling was first adopted, and 1994, when the International Convention to Combat Desertification …
A SIMPLE distinction between developed and developing countries is that the former category has solutions for which there seem to be no problems while the latter is beset with problems for which there seem to be no solutions. The contributors to this book believe that this divide can be overcome …
AN INITIATIVE adopted by Kamal Nath, Union minister of environment and forests, to mobilise developing countries to checkmate the move to modify the 1992 London amendment of the Montreal Protocol on phasing out ozone depleting substances (ODS), labels the deeper objective of developed countries to stake out markets for their …
A TRAGEDY of Indian planners as also of those from some other developing countries is that they have considered agricultural development synonymous with rural development. Development is a must for alleviation of rural poverty, but ironically, conventional development pro- grammes have exacerbated the pressures on the rural poor and unwittingly …
Even as environmental groups in the USA maintain silence over the concerns of the southern countries, European groups have taken the lead to initiate debates over the present unsustainable consumption patterns and lifestyles of Europe. One of the pioneering attempts in this direction was made by Friends of Earth (FOE), …
GLORY became India's, albeit in a limited sense, when it carved out a leadership role at the Climate Summit in Berlin. Supported by China, the Indian proposal of a 20 per cent cut in carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions of the industrialised countries by the year 2005 -- a revised form …
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 …
THE industrialised countries are back to their pre-Rio game of chess. They imposed their narcissistic environmental agenda on the economically atremble South by virtually bamboozling it into signing the treaty on climate change in 1992. Three years later, the North has not only reneged on its commitments, but also seems …
PLANTS support human life. Period. Today, a majority of people in the developing countries depend on fuelwood, dung, charcoal and agro-wastes for their cooking, heating and other energy requirements. A flicker of electricity is also produced from agricultural and other wastes. Subsequent to the oil shock in the '70s, and …
THE united stand of the labour ministers of the nonaligned and other developing countries to denounce the post-Uruguay round attempt to introduce a social clause to link up international trade with labour standards, although commendable, is still a political riddle. This Delhi Declaration's seemingly aggressive stance, following from the 5th …
THE process of aluminium extraction from its ore, bauxite, is highly polluting, the reason being the large quantity of power and chemicals consumed. The requirements for producing 1 tonne of primary metal include about 16 Mwh of electric power, 5.5 t bauxite, 1.3 t coal, 0.6 t anode carbon, 0.25 …
Who is to blame for the world's environmental woes-the poor nations or the rich countries? The developed countries show high resource consumption patterns that make them the bigger polluters. But this is not to say that the developing nations are off the high population growth weak environmental regulations and use …
THE Union government has finalised a draft legislation to promote energy conservation in the industrial sector. This was announced by P A Sangma, Union minister of state for coal and labour, at the International Conference on Energy, held in New Delhi on November 17. Although the Energy Management Centre (EMC), …
There has been a new twist to global efforts for combating aids. Brazil, Thailand and Uganda plan to begin large-scale trials of 2 hiv vaccines although the us had called a halt to its experimental vaccine trials earlier this year. The present controversial decision was taken at a World Health …
AT A halt in Geneva during a recent globetrotting trip, Union environment minister Kamal Nath figuratively explained his view of the uneven environmental realities of the world. He asserted that the much-blamed population of the South, with "4 children per family" hardly taxed the earth's resources as much as the …
Renewable energy sources and technologies have been researched and promoted in varying degrees in different countries over the past 2 decades. Do energy experts have a clearer idea now as to which renewable sources and technologies should play a greater role in meeting rural energy needs? I don't think that …
Since September this year, panchayats of Maharashtra's Nagpur region have complained that even large quantities of pesticides have had no effect on the brown aphid (delfocidas) pest rampant among their paddy fields. Their experience is shared by farmers the world over. Pests, weeds and diseases are increasingly developing genetic resistance …
