Kyoto in trouble

the Kyoto Protocol is in trouble. Russia may not ratify it. And even if it does, it's not going to do so anytime soon. That was the message, loud and clear, from the Russian president Vladimir Putin and his aides at the recent World Climate Change Conference held in Moscow, Russia, recently.

Book notice: Hope in sight

Improving People's Lives: Lessons in Empowerment from Asia Editor: Mukul Sharma The Commonwealth Foundation 210+10 pp Rs 280

Ploughing on in Punjab

ever since Punjab chief minister (cm) Amarinder Singh's performance was rated highly by a popular weekly magazine in August, the state government has gone into a public relations overdrive. One of the main successes, it has claimed in full-page advertisements placed in national dailies, is the diversification of the state's ailing agriculture sector.

MALAR miracle

Achieve development

In November 1999 during the World Trade Organization ministerial conference in Seattle I led the delegation from the United Kingdom. I was convinced the expansion of world trade could bring major benefits to developing countries and would be a key to tackle world poverty. For this, developing countries needed to embrace fully trade liberalisation.

How should tribal owners profit from forest wealth?

The gross tribal produce of Bastar is in excess of Rs 1,000 crore a year. Tribals, 'owners' of the minor forest produce -- in terms of the Panchayat (Extension to Scheduled Areas) Act, 1996 -- receive around 20 per cent of the value of their produce. 80 per cent passes on to the moneylender-middlemen-trader nexus. Van Dhan, or 'wealth of the forests', was a program conceived to make this predatory trade more equitable to the tribals.

Free flow

Currently, industry guzzles about 22 per cent of the total freshwater used worldwide. By 2025, this figure is expected to go up to 24 per cent, says the World Bank's World Water Development Report 2001.

Balancing act

Ineptly. One word that describes the way Indian industry produces and gobbles energy. And because it is inept, it gobbles more than what is necessary. The end result: more pollution.

Black liquor

The case of India's agro-based pulp and paper mills is representative of most small and medium enterprises (SMEs) operating in the country: low on resources, low on motivation to turn clean, and therefore, low on efficient, non-polluting technology.

Flaying the environment

India's 2,500 tanneries churn out 1.8 billion square feet of leather every year. They earn the country US $6 billion annually as foreign exchange. They also discharge about 24 million cubic metres of wastewater with high COD, BOD and TDS concentrations, and about 0.4 million tonnes of hazardous solid wastes per annum (Environmental Management in Selected Industrial Sectors, CPCB and MEF, 2003).