Blown out
A deadly cyclone causes large-scale devastation in Pakistan and despite early warnings the toll on the Indian side is as high
Search Results
-
-
For the swish of a snow leopard's tail...
A commitment to excellence and breathtaking photography characterise the two recent films on Ladakh made by Naresh and Rajesh Bedi
-
TURMOIL IN TRIBAL LAND
Tribals and farmers in MP protest against exploitatiojl and atrocities
-
Tiny difference that made a miracle
The economic and ecological miracle of regeneration in Alwar district is being brought about by using just three per cent of the rainfall. This small percentage is being used for irrigation, and has
-
India and Britain differ on conservation issues
India doubts the ability of the British to understand the complexity of Indian ecosystems and suggest measures for their conservation.
-
Languishing in the cans
Films on successful technological projects and innovative government schemes have failed simply because there has been no effort to show them to target groups
-
Daubs fo gilt on the Israeli image abraod
Two films on Israel, despite their obvious public relations motive, nevertheless catch and hold firmly, the viewer's interest.
-
Tissue culture technology facilitates to hike yeild of tasty coconut
The tasty, popular coconut species of Thailand, kati, could not be produced in large scale because it is infertile. But scientists have now found a way to overcome its sterility
-
More the merrier
The Darwinian theory on biodiversity which advocates the planting of more species of grass to achieve higher yields, has been upheld by a recent study conducted in the US. Indeed, the well being of the ecosystem hinges on the vicissitude displayed by its
-
Bringing polluters to book
Balotra, an arid little town in Rajasthan, has a novel way of raising money to treat effluents from its mushrooming textile dyeing and processing industry.
-
Colours of Nature
An organisation in Mumbai documents the presence of dyeing pigments in microbes and plants
-
Solution: good science
There are no political boundaries for animals, but officials concerned fail to see the point
-
MONEYMAKERS
neem-based pesticide: To encourage the use of eco-friendly and biodegradable pesticides, the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) has approved the ISI mark for Mukumbi Manufacturing Company of
-
Inland aquaculture can improve livelihoods of millions
<font class='UCASE'>M Vijay Gupta</font>, former assistant director general, World Fish Center, Penang, Malaysia was the World Food Prize winner in 2005. He talks to <font class='UCASE'>Sourav Mishra</font> on inland aquaculture s relevance for the Thir
-
Dying diversity: North profits from destruction of southern hotspots
Lukewarm spots >> Biodiversity hotspots are regions of significant diversity threatened with destruction through commercial exploitation. There are 34 hotspots in the world, accounting for just
-
Tragopan country
It's not often that a remote village finds a mention in government tourism brochures. Khonoma in Nagaland does. The village is not exactly an archetypal exotic destination. You have to withstand a two-hour, bone-rattling bus trip from Kohima to get there. But it's a trip worth taking if you are a wildlife enthusiast.
-
SEZ, how special?
Despite having burned its fingers with export processing zones, which mainly involved a number of substantial fiscal benefits, the government has gone into overdrive to push its new policy on special economic zones. The difference, this time around, is th
-
Sustaining 9 p.c. growth will be tough: Survey
Favours partial sale of profit-making non-navaratna PSUs, and tackling of inflationary impulses Holding out a warning that the current slowdown in the U.S. would have an effect on the Indian economy, the Economic Survey 2007-08 maintained that sustaining a high GDP growth of nine per cent while reining in inflation would be a tough challenge. Tabled in Parliament by Finance Minister P. Chidambaram on Thursday, the Government's pre-Budget annual economic progress report said that in the current uncertain scenario, an increase in the overall growth to double digits would entail additional reforms and came out with a policy prescription. Among the various measures suggested to sustain the high growth momentum, the Survey favoured partial sale of the identified profit-making non-navaratna public sector undertakings (PSUs), phasing out control on sugar, fertilizer and drugs, sale of old oilfields to the private sector, a higher share for foreign equity in retail trade and further opening up of the banking and insurance sectors to foreign direct investment (FDI). With the economy projected to grow at 8.7 per cent during the current fiscal, the Survey pointed out that the lower growth represented a deceleration from the unexpectedly high growth of 9.4 and 9.6 per cent in the preceding two years. "Maintaining growth rate at nine per cent will be a challenge and raising it to two digits will be an even greater one,' the Survey said. Linking the huge accumulation of foreign capital inflows as the reason for the pressure building up on prices, the Survey said that inflationary impulses from global commodity prices must be tackled through use of fiscal and trade policy instruments. Inflation this fiscal is projected to return to the earlier level of 4.4 per cent, down from 5.4 per cent in 2006-07. Deceleration in growth this fiscal appears to have spread across all sectors except electricity, community service and services such as trade, hotels, transport and communications. More significantly, the slowdown in the farm sector growth is attributed to the sluggish trend witnessed in rabi crops. Also, other sectors like manufacturing and construction which grew at 12 per cent in 2006-07 dropped by 2.5 percentage points in the current year. "The slower growth of consumer durables was the most important factor in the slowdown of manufacturing,' the Survey said. As for the external sector, the U.S. economy is expected to slow down in 2008 as a fall-out of the sub-prime mortgage crisis. In fact, most projections of global economies anticipate a moderate and not severe slowdown. "This will impact all countries including India, depending on the importance of the slowdown in different countries and importance of the country in our exports,' the Survey concluded, while pointing out that a further fall in exports to the U.S. might be unavoidable but would be relatively modest. On the flip side, the Survey viewed that one of the implications of the U.S. sub-prime crises would be increased capital inflows into India and other emerging markets. "Thus the situation of excess inflows is likely to remain, though the pressure on reserve accumulation and exchange rate appreciation is likely to ease. Any reduction in excess capital flows from the high levels in 2007 may affect the equity markets in the short-term, but will make the task of monetary management easier,' it said.
-
Unemployment as a global economic malady
Unemployment is a common global economic malady, the level of which distintly varies between developed and under developed nations with Keynesian involuntary and frictional type in respect of developed nation and structural type as regard to under developed country like India which contributes to maximum growth of population and insignificant economic growth. Under employment or disguised employment has intensified its dimensions mainly in the rural sector where despite having capacity and willingness, persons fail to avail any gainful activities and as such job seekers out-number the job availability creating a major wastage of manpower. Unemployment in our country is partly due to overwhelming growth of population which has occurred in view of immigration from earstwhile East Pakistan and partially due to non-availability of land, less productivity, lack of industrial infrastructure, haphazard growth of educational institutions and expansion of education which is responsible for cropping up of new entrants in an already over crowded labour market. Agriculture being a seasonal activity fails to provide employment to rural masses throughout the year while perennial activity is not available in reality owing to excessive pressure of population. Exodus from rural areas coupled with slow pace of industrialisation has proved to be a constrain in providing employment opportunity to the growing urban population. Rapid expansion of general education mingted with slow growth of technical and vocational facilities has resulted in a peculiar educated unemployment problem. Accurate estimation of unemployment has become a tough task in view of ever increasing unemployment and under employment and failures of employment exchanges in recording correct figures. While unemployment in this State as a percentage of labour force has become double as compared to the country within 1985-2000 as per NSSO report, it is estimated to be 10.9% of total labour force with a total of 13 lakh (71%) registered educated job seekers, HSLC passed (51%) out-numbered HSSLC passed (30%) and graduates (16%) while technical and post graduate job seekers constitute a very minimal (3%) percentage. Placement of job seekers increased to 16% in between 2004 and 2005 constituting minimal (0.5%) increase in public sector and 9.3% increase in private sector with nearly 31% women employment in organised sector. Rural and women unemployment has become three times to all-India rate having acute unemployment among educated. Most of the self employed or partially employed youth bother a little to inform the employment exchange about their absorption which is also responsible for non-capturing of accurate employment situation. According to the NSSO report, the number of unemployed in this State is 18 and 24 per 1000 respectively in rural and urban area as against only 9 and 19 respectively in national level indicating a greater dimension of the problem in this State. According to the task force, the rate of unemployment in this State increased from 7.96 in 1993-94 to 8 per cent in 1999-2000 which is quite high compared to all India (nearly 7%), 2.93% of Himachal Pradesh and 3.06% of Rajasthan. Youths in this State are mostly interested in Government jobs in lieu of self employment or employment in private venture, which has enhanced the demand for jobs leading to major corruption in the recruitment policy. Ban on creation of posts and restriction on filling up vacancies has created mounting unemployment problem resulting in a grave political, economic and social disorder. Despite shooting up of GDP, employment growth in the State declined significantly within 15 years in agriculture. The call of the hour is to generate job opportunities through filling up vacancies considering intellectual achievement. It is necessary to locate certain sectors where unemployed youths can be accommodated suitably leaving aside Govt assignment. According to a study, the employment elasticity of various sectors varied significantly with primary sector of elasticity 0.74, manufacturing sector 0.19, trade and commerce 0.37 with overall average of 0.45. ILO having its goal of promoting opportunities for both the sex and ensuring security, freedom and dignity depicted persistent unemployment and dismal scenario of the world's employment situation in its
-
A star spender with clipped wings
The ambitious Indian space programme, despite occasional setbacks, has had its share of success. A backgrounder to the programme which is very much in the news today