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Water Woes of Central Asia By Dr Arvind Kumar In a recently released report on the situation in the Amu Darya Basin in Central Asia, the United Nations Environmental Program (UNEP) has criticized Central Asian governments for failing to agree on ways to cooperate on water management. The report warns that unless they can find a way to coordinate their effort, the future does not look bright for them. The Amu Darya -- known in the past as the Oxus -- has for most of its history been praised for its richness and fertility. The upper reaches of the Amu Darya form part of Afghanistan's northern border with Tajikistan. Elsewhere it marks part of the boundary between Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan. Originating from various water sources in Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Afghanistan, the Amu Darya flows northwest to its mouth on the southern shore of the Aral Sea. At 2,540 kilometers in length, the Amu Darya is the longest river in Central Asia. When the Soviets controlled the regio...

Glut vs. Starvation By Dr Arvind Kumar Media reports indicate that India is set to have a record cereal production of 241 million tonnes this year. However, this news raises more worries of safe storage and higher costs of stock maintenance than spreading cheer. Since storage capacity is limited, more food will rot in rain. For too long the government has sat over piles of food stocks, hoping to use them once the food bill is passed. Food mismanagement is a regular UPA feature. As a solution the government has allowed wheat exports. However, given the low prices in global markets, this will not help. High prices despite godowns overflowing with grains are intriguing and point to a possible nexus. A cartel of firms sells flour and allied products at a huge premium to the market price of wheat. Central and state governments, despite being hobbled by high food inflation, have abandoned their prime duty of building leak-proof supply chains, breaking cartels, checking middlemen a...

World Energy Balance By Dr Arvind Kumar World energy balance is likely to undergo a paradigm shift in the near future in view of rising natural gas production from shale formations. While dismissing the notion, recently debated in the U.S. media, that the shale gas revolution is a transitory occurrence, a new Baker Institute study, "Shale Gas and U.S. National Security," projects that U.S. shale production will more than quadruple by 2040 from 2010 levels of more than 10 billion cubic feet per day, reaching more than 50 percent of total U.S. natural gas production by the 2030s. Largely due to shale gas discoveries, estimated reserves of natural gas in the United States in 2008 were 35% higher than in 2006. Oil shale, an organic-rich fine-grained sedimentary rock, contains significant amounts of kerogen (a solid mixture of organic chemical compounds) from which liquid hydrocarbons called shale oil and/or natural g...

Climate Pollutants Threaten Human Rights By Dr Arvind Kumar Recently, the Center for Human Rights and Environment (CEDHA) in Argentina and the Institute for Governance and Sustainable Development (IGSD) in Washington, D.C., have in a joint petition to the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights submitted that climate pollutant emissions violate human rights and require rapid reductions to protect the world’s most vulnerable people. According to the Joint submission, c limate pollutants and associated adverse impacts from a warming world violate basic human rights to life, health, water, food, equality before the law, effective judicial remedy, residence and movement, self determination, clean environment, and to be free from interference with one’s home. States have a mandatory obligation under international human rights law to adopt special measures to protect the fundamental rights of the inhabitants of the world’s most vulnerable regions from climate impacts. Romina Pico...

Tree Talk By Dr Arvind Kumar Sometimes small events organized in small places prove to be gigantic one in their scope and universal appeal. Recently, 38th series of popular environment programme 'Tree Talk' was organized in the Botanical Garden, Kashmir University. The event was organized to pay tribute to former HoD Botany Department and renowned Botanist late Prof P N Kachroo. The programme called ‘Tree Talk’ is designed to popularize environmental and ecological balance is becoming popular with the experts, academia and forest department functionaries who take part in the serious with increased enthusiasm. This is a healthy step and entails the potential to be of much utility if the concept is expanded to encompass more aspect of ecological protection. However, this programme is yet to make its mark even in Jammu where it originated. Viewed in a broad perspective, most of the urban areas in India are faced with ecological degradation on account of haphazard ex...

Ensuring Food Security By Dr Arvind Kumar The first half of 2011 has witnessed global food prices soaring to a record high, raising concerns of new round of social unrest like that which spread through many regions of the world in 2008. From 2006 to 2008, average global prices for food staples soared, with rice jumping 217 percent, wheat 136 percent, corn 125 percent and soybeans 107 percent. Some experts argued that global population growth was to blame, while others pointed to dietary changes brought about by growing prosperity in developing countries, including an increase in the consumption of meat and processed foods. Still others blamed the increasing diversion of food crops to make bio-fuels or trade liberalization, which opened up developing countries to food imports from generously subsidized Western producers, negatively impacting local production. Whatever the cause, the result was mass unrest, with protests and riots breaking out in 30 countries in Asia, Africa and ...

GURU PURNIMA On Auspicious Occasion of Guru Purnima let us pledge to keep our values and ethics intact. Evolve our selves through leadership and governance which are key drivers for societal change

Need for Convergence BY Dr Arvind Kumar Convergence in policy formulation and implementation is a sine qua non of good governance. Convergence encompasses cooperation, coordination, avoidance of collision and change for better. Recent measures of linking Ministry of Earth Sciences with Ministry of Science and Technology and carving a separate Ministry for Drinking Water and Sanitation out of the Ministry of Rural Development by the Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh in his Cabinet reshuffle show slight amount of convergence. Still a lot more needs to be done. The subject of water does not fall in the exclusive domain of the Central Ministry of Water Resources. It is being dealt with by, apart from Ministry of Water Resources, other ministries like Ministry of Rural Development, Ministry of Urban Affairs, Ministry of Agriculture, Ministry of Health etc. as well. It is a welcome move that a separate Ministry for Drinking Water and Sanitation has been created out of the Ministry o...

Economic Power vs. Military Might By Dr Arvind Kumar At the outset of the Post-Cold War, many experts proclaimed that “geo-economics” would replace geopolitics. The economic power was expected to become the key to success in world politics, a change that many people thought would usher in a world dominated by Japan and Germany. After over two decades of the end of the Cold War, the rise in China’s share of world output is interpreted by some as signifying a fundamental shift in the balance of global power, but without considering military power. Military power, which some call the ultimate form of power in world politics, requires a thriving economy; but whether economic or military resources produce more power in today’s world depends on the context. Many crucial issues, such as financial stability or climate change, simply are not amenable to military force. According to Joseph S. Nye, judging whether economic interdependence produces power requires looking at the balance of...

World Population Day The World Population Day is annually observed on 11th July to reaffirm the human right to plan for a family. It encourages activities, events and information to help make this right a reality throughout the world. World Population Day aims to increase people’s awareness on various population issues such as the importance of family planning, including gender equality, poverty, maternal health and human rights. The day is celebrated worldwide by business groups, community organizations and individuals in many ways. Activities include seminar discussions, educational information sessions and essay competitions. In 1968 world leaders proclaimed that individuals had a basic human right to determine freely and responsibly the number and timing of their children. World Population Day was instituted in 1989 as an outgrowth of the Day of Five Billion, marked on 11 July 1987. The UN authorized the event as a vehicle to build an awareness of population issues and the i...

Green Technology as Solution By Dr Arvind Kumar The United Nations’ latest report, The World Economic and Social Survey 2011: The Great Green Technological Transformation , published by the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs, warns that humanity is near to breaching the sustainability of Earth, and needs a technological revolution greater and faster than the industrial revolution to avoid "a major planetary catastrophe. The report calls for investments of at least $1.9 trillion per year to avert this catastrophe. The report further says: "It is rapidly expanding energy use, mainly driven by fossil fuels, that explains why humanity is on the verge of breaching planetary sustainability boundaries through global warming, biodiversity loss, and disturbance of the nitrogen-cycle balance and other measures of the sustainability of the Earth’s ecosystem. A comprehensive global energy transition is urgently needed in order to avert a major planetary catastrophe....

Afghanistan's Water Woes By Dr Arvind Kumar For over three decades, Afghanistan has been witnessing internecine battles, coupled with foreign intervention and is haunted by political instability. This has affected the ecological balance, particularly with regard to availability of drinking water. According to latest Human Development Report on Afghanistan, only 48 percent of Afghanistan's population has access to safe drinking water and only 37 percent use improved sanitation facilities - with serious health implications, especially for children, according to the UN Children's Fund. While stating that some parts of the country are physically water scarce, most people lack access to safe water because of inadequate infrastructure and poor management rather than insufficient resources, the report further says: "During three decades of turmoil in Afghanistan, water supply infrastructure has been neglected or destroyed, while the relevant institutions responsible...

The Perishing Oceans By Dr Arvind Kumar A consortium of scientists, under the aegis of the International Program on the State of the Ocean (IPSO), has recently warned that oceans are at dire risk. Having examined the synergistic effects of diverse factors on the oceans for the first time, the group found that oceans are speeding toward biological collapse faster than predicted. IPSO's research and analysis is one of the most extensive and collaborative ever undertaken. IPSO found that entire ecosystems, like coral reefs, are dying, complete populations of certain species of fish are close to extinction and pollution is at an all-time high. These various factors are bad enough in isolation, but the comprehensive study found that they add up much more quickly than previously understood. The scientific studies concluded that the ocean is entering a period exhibiting the same symptoms as the five previous mass extinctions in Earth's history. Parts of the ocean have already ...

HYDROPOLITICS IN CHINA [ Present dispensation in China is engaged in creating a harmonious society in China and the burgeoning problem of water shortage is likely to upset its ambitious aspirations as counties affected may give rise to unmanageable problems. The rivers emanating from Tibet, while passing through Tibet stream downward the neighboring countries. Brahmaputra and Sutlej which originate from Tibet flow down into India. However, China’s contemplated move to build dams along Sino-Indian border can adversely impact India, Ed.] The present regime under the leadership of President Hu Jintao in Beijing is pursuing the policy of hexie shehui or the harmonious society, which envisages social and political stability based on sustainable development and people’s welfare. However, the Chinese society is afflicted with severe water scarcity and pollution, which seems a clear fault line in its path to the society. The problem of water scarcity has threatened the Chinese people’s suste...

Note on China’s Reported Move on River Brahmputra: Implications for India China’s reported move to build a series of dams in Tibet, including a hydel power generation plant at Zangmu on the middle reaches of the Brahmaputra, as per media reports, is a very serious issue entailing far-reaching implications for India. The plan has been part of a larger Chinese initiative to tap Himalayan rives for hydropower. Tibet’s rivers had remained largely untapped owing to the difficult terrain, but with improvements in technology in recent years, China has embarked on an ambitious plan to tap fresh water in Tibet. The Tibetan Plateau is a landscape of enormous glaciers, huge alpine lakes, and mighty waterfalls – a storehouse of freshwater so bountiful that the region serves as the headwaters for many of Asia’s largest rivers, including the Yellow, Yangtze, Mekong, Brahmaputra, Salween, and Sutlej, among others. According to studies by the United Nations and several prominent global environmental...

Education for profit or Public Good? The mushroom growth of private institutions of higher education in India has given rise to question whether such institutions are money spinning machines or serving public interest. In the absence of any reliable data it is difficult to find any answer to this question for the time being. However, a recent article published in Japan Times by Hiroaki Sato depicts a sordid state of affairs in private educational institutions in the United States. While lamenting that American insistence on free-market notions has brought the matter to the other extreme in higher education, Sato asserts that it has spawned education profiteers. Worse, many of these colleges get most of their ‘revenues’ from the government. According to a report published by US Government Accountability Office (GAO), most these private educational institutions encourage fraud and pursue the "deceptive and questionable marketing practices." The US Department of E...

Uncertainty in Afghanistan The reported move of Obama Administration to start withdrawing American troops from Afghanistan from July 2011 after over a decade-long sufferings may be a good news for the American families whose members are fighting ‘aimless war’ on a foreign soil, but it is very difficult for Afghans to wriggle out of the foreign-created quagmire. Since the fall of the Daoud government in March 1978, Afghanistan has seldom seen even a brief spell of peace or stability. The present decade-old mess is the result of inability of the US and NATO-led forces to tame Taliban. Unless Pakistan is not reined in, it is difficult to restrain Taliban because Islamabad is the main source of money and weapons for Taliban. It is ironical that Pakistan itself has been the victim of Taliban terror, by the Taliban protégé – Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, and it still continues to support Taliban. The post-US withdrawal scenario in Afghanistan entails the possibility of replication of ...