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 Supreme Court of India sounded the death knell for five large chemical industries in Rajasthan in an order given on February 15. The industries were given closure orders for producing a highly toxic chemical, 'H' acid whose production has been banned in the western countries. The factories penalised for …
WHEN the Gujarat High Court ((-,Hc) orders for closing down 756 units in and around Ahmedabad on August 5, and 26 major industries in Nandesari estate in Barcida on September 5 (Down To Earth, Vol 4, No 9) were not followed, contempt petition against government officials was admitted. However, the …
The furore over the import of toxic wastes has assumed serious proportions with the Supreme Court now being asked to direct the Union government to ban the import of all hazardous wastes. The Dehradunbased Research Foundation for Science, Technology and Development which moved the petition on October 16, has submitted …
Calvin R Brunner is one of these writers who has his head so - in technical details that he loses sight of "m pactum While his JAmandous Waste nnimina, displays an 1&g; knowledge of the Jodkies of incinerator efolikis is not surprising hwbr bW& and opertor or ignorant of or …
More than 325 mil- lion gallons of deadly cyanide waste spilled recent- ly into the Essequibo, central Guyana's biggest river, killing thousands of fish and forcing the government to adopt emergency measures. The spill's origin has been traced to the Omai open pit gold mine operated by Canadian firms; cyanide …
THE MEF has launched a probe into the granting of environmental clearance to United Phosphorus, an agrochemical company, to import a used chlor-alkali plant. The factory will manufacture chlorine-based pesticides in the chemical industry belt of Vapi in Gujarat. The company imported the plant from Norske Skogindustrier, Norway's largest pulp …
The nations of this region have signalled their refusal to be treated as mere waste dumps. In mid-April, 13 island states, including Australia and New Zealand, agreed to a draft treaty that will ban all chemical and other hazardous wastes from being dumped in, or shipped through, the region. Ratification …
THE dirty linen of the developed countries was brought out in the open and, as expected, created a furore. The setting was the 3-day workshop on the Basel Convention held in Dakar, Senegal, between March 15-17. Green activism had already heated up the debate on the transboundary movement of hazardous …
THE us-based ngo Greenpeace has launched a campaign against international trade on toxic material, and is now trying to step up the momentum of protest in India against toxic waste import, its production and disposal. Greenpeace held a series of workshops in the country in March, which were the launch-pad …
Importers of foreign waste will not be allowed to sully the environment anymore. The ministry of environment and forests (MEF) has alerted the directorate general of foreign trade (DGFT) to the practice of smuggling in of hazardous waste mixed with quotas of legitimate cargo. The MEF has asked the ministry …
POLLUTION, like other disturbing facts, can be swept under the carpet. Thus it is that the first ever inventorisation of hazardous waste generation in the National Capital Region (NCR) by the Tata Risk Management Services (TRMS) has found that the area generates none! Even officials within the Central Pollution Control …
THE ministry of environment and forests (MEF) has catalysed sweeping amendments in the suddenly important Manufacture, Storage and Import of Hazardous Chemicals Rules (1989). Under a new regime, safety audits have been made mandatory for 924 Maximum Accident Hazard (MAH) units and other industries producing or handling hazardous chemicals. But …
WHEN the US Consumer Product Safety Commission abruptly banned the sale of rayon chiffon ghagra-skirts from India in August this year, the Indian textile industry literally went up in flames. Indian exports of textiles to the US had been increasing happily over the past few years. But now the Americans …
A RECENT study conducted by the Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research in Bombay shows that about 60 per cent of Indian exports go to the industrialised countries. This should be cause for immediate, close attention for anyone who is familiar with the growing trends in the environmental standards of …
A gaily coloured dress might be a visual treat, but the dyes used in them might hide a dark secret. Studies at the Oregon Graduate Institute of Science and Technology in the US have revealed that treating azo dyes -- noxious effluents released by textile mills -- with hydroxyl ions …
ON MARCH 3, Navita Singh, senior sub-judge of Haryana's Kaithal district, created a precedent when she passed a permanent injunction restraining the working of one of Kaithal's 350 odd punjawas -- outdated brick kilns using coal dust that, resembling a hillock, have no chimneys that distinguish "modern" brick kilns. Singh's …
THE US played a lead role in urging recalcitrant nations like Russia to endorse a treaty banning chemical weapons, which these 2 countries and 152 others are due to ratify. But, although the US Congress has directed the army to eliminate its stockpile by 2004 AD, the army may not …
• On the outskirts of Ahmedabad, near the Vatva industrial estate, a strange sight greets visitors: stray dogs are tinged with a purple hue, splashed with blue or green. Cause: rambling through dumpyards around the estate, where toxic waste is thrown. • Two months ago, 3 people burnt their feet …
THE environment ministry's worry about hazardous waste is shared by some big industries. According to K P Nyati of the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), "The trend is to reduce waste at the beginning of the production process." This, he says, is safer and more economical than doing it later. …
In Maharashtra, the dumping of toxic waste is no less brazen. It is a common practice in Bombay to dispose of industrial sludge along with municipal garbage. Associated Industrial Consultants (AIC), an environmental industrial consultant that studied the development of an environmental management strategy for Bombay, found that "none (of …
