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 …
The last battleground of the Vietnam war is still marked by strife. A generation after chasing off the Americans, Vietnam is putting up with what may be called its
safe disposal: The Thiruvananthapuram-based Peninsula Polymers (Penpol) is breaking new ground in its hospital waste management business which specialises in the disposal of hazardous waste material. It has developed
Silver solutions used in photography pose an environmental threat if disposed off through the drainage system. Therefore, silver is generally recovered for reuse. Electrolysis, the traditional method of recycling silver, salvages only 80 per cent of it. Now, Bruno Pollet of Coventry University in the UK claims that 95 per …
the colour is unmistakably red. The screaming television advertisements sell a lifestyle that makes red the desirable colour, the lifestyle "we've all been waiting for' and renders drinking Coke from cans a status symbol. The marketing wizards of the multinational company ( mnc ) are scoring big; it has now …
A vast number of Chemicals are in use at present and they pose vital threat to the environment and mankind, unless handled and managed in proper way, and hence the Govt. of India has Rules under title Chemical Accidents (Emergency planning, Preparedness and response) Rules, 1996 framed to effectively deal …
Workplaces are great. They give you money, satisfaction and a sense of belongingness. But some of them in China are giving their workers considerable nightmares. About 230,000 workers, mostly women, employed in 74 shoe factories in the city of Putian in Fijian province are exposed to benzene and toluene on …
sugar seems to be a cause of tragedy in Buxar in Uttar Pradesh. Dumping of bagasse-ash by the Simbhaoli sugar mill at various sites around the town has caused severe burning accidents and irreparable eye problems. Bagasse, the stalk left after extraction of juice from sugarcane, is used as a …
the smooth, white surface of your bathroom sink hides the fact that the process of making it is a notoriously dirty and polluting one. Aluminium oxide ceramics which find applications in a range of products (from sinks to lasers) are made by dissolving aluminium oxide powder in organic solvents and …
Industrial advancement has no doubt improved the standard of living of human beings, but in the process the crucial environmental balance established by nature over a millenium has been inadvertantly disturbed. The concentration and distribution pattern of metals within the ecosystem is especially important. Metals are a unique class of …
ON THE heels of the mad cow disease, the British government is faced with another food safety crisis. This time the crisis centres around powdered baby milk thought to contain potentially hazardous chemicals. However, the government has insisted that there was no cause for alarm. The controversy began after a …
According to medical and environmental scientists, deodorants are toxic and in some caseslethal. This view was established after a recent research which proved that, practicallyall deodorants are harmful to the health of users. Deodorants use chemicals that prevent odour by sealing the pores on the skin, making perspiration impossible. Too …
The Supreme Court of India came down heavily on the government for its failure to stop the import of hazardous chemicals. Passing strict orders on the environment ministry on May 10, the court warned that it would declare that the government machinery had broken down if it does not clamp …
IRE is mounting globally against a technology that has existed for more than a 100 years now. Although it is not in good taste to get up one fine morning and start protesting about what has been going on for ages, it is certainly rational if done to ensure good …
RECENTLY, the Supreme Court's deliberations on some cases of environmental defaults indeed came as a breather when the Union ministry of environment and forests (MEF) secretary, N Krishnan, was hauled up by the Court. A division bench comprising Justice J S Verma and Justice B N Kripal, severely castigated him …
WITH the proposal of a us $360 million loan from the World Bank (WB) to India to provide commercially viable industrial waste treatment methods, the community's right to know, awaiting notification by the Union ministry of environment (MEF) and forests in early February 1996 (Down To Earth, Vol 4, No …
MARDIA Chemicals Ltd (MCL) of Gujarat has been producing H-, J- and K-acids, tobaid acid, vinyl sulphone, dye intermediates and sulphuric acid since January 1991, with what are suspected to be 'second-hand imported plants. Reports of pollution by the plant poured in 1991 itself. Complaints of air, water and ground …
WITH the German ban on azo dyes having come into effect from April 1, the ministry of environment and forests has issued a notification which aims to ban handling of 1-4 more azo dyes as they could cause cancer to humans. With this ban, the number of banned hazardous azo …
Disturbed by the increasing tendency of some industrialised nations to dump their hazardous waste on its shores, China has strengthened its anti- dumping laws. The new law, aimed at curbing the "invasion of foreign garbage", came into effect from April 1. Now, those who ship solid wastes into China for …
AFTER Latin America was plundered 400 years ago -by Spanish, conquistadors guided by the triple goals of "Gold, Glory and God", today, reckless exploitation of another El Dorado on the continent - Venezuela's Bolivar province - is threatening to destroy the unique Amazonian flora and fauna, besides subjecting the inhabitants …
• A recent report made by the Punjab Pollution Control Board has made gloomy predictions for India's two major wetlands located in Harike and Kanjli areas in the state. Indiscriminate deforestation and mismanagement are devastating these wetlands. • The world's biggest solar power chimney plant of 200 MW capacity is …
