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By Dr Arvind Kumar* President, India Water Foundation, New Delhi. [Recent years have witnessed water emerging as a hot issue between India and Pakistan relations. Pakistan is averse to India taking advantage of Indus Rivers emanating from Kashmir by building hydro-electric dams on these rivers and accuses India of stealin water meant for Pakistan under the terms of Indus Water Treaty of 1960. India’s refutation of Pakistani allegations remain unheeded by Islamabad and it is insistent upon using water as a ‘tool’ to denounce India. Ed. ] Water is becoming a progressively scarce and fluctuating resource in view of burgeoning population, growing food demand and climate change. Accordingly, there has been an increasing competition between countries vis-à-vis their right to water. River basins shared by more than one country cover over 45 percent of the world's land surface area. Presently, 263 trans-boundary or international river basins are being shared by two or more countries. Reser...

Dr Arvind Kumar* * Editor, SAR Economist. Gangetic Plain lies in the centre of Uttar Pradesh. Having highly fertile alluvial soils, this region is flat in topography and broken by numerous ponds, lakes and rivers. Gangetic plain stretching across the entire length of the state from east to west is regarded as the most important area from economic point of view. The entire alluvial plain can be divided into three sub-regions. The first in the eastern tract comprises 14 districts which are subject to periodical floods and droughts and have been classified as scarcity areas. These districts have the highest density of population which gives the lowest per capita land. The other two regions, the central and the western are comparatively better with a well-developed irrigation system. They suffer from water logging and large-scale user tracts. The Gangetic plain is watered by the Yamuna, the Ganga and its major tributaries, the Ramganga, the Gomati, the Ghaghra and Gandak. Mounting Water Cr...

By Dr Arvind Kumar* *President, India Water Foundation, New Delhi. Recent months have witnessed fast pace of developments occurring in Afghanistan without pointing out towards any tabgible solution of the decade-long Afghan crisis. The last week of June this year saw shift of command from Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal to Gen. David H. Petraeus in Afghanistan. The US command shift is unlikely to yield any ‘wonderful, results in the near future because strategy, military personnel and equipment is the same. The present Afghan ruling elite, including President Karzai, has occasionally voiced its support for ‘reconciliation’ with moderate Taliban leadership, an idea which is gaining gradual support with European Union and some segments in Washington as well. There exist differences between President Karzai and the US and NATO command. President Karzai is doubtful of West’s capabilities to contain Taliban resurgence. The American war strategy rests largely on clearing ground held by the Taliba...

By Dr. Arvind Kumar Sustainability and development go hand-in-hand. There is a dire need for the industry to increasingly adopt sustainable practices to safeguard ecological balance, which in turn will give greater dividends to companies in future. Companies, which have adopted substantial green practices now, could well become future leaders in this space. Energy conservation measures provide direct benefit to companies in term of cost saving. In the wake of Kyoto protocol and rising pollution level in India, there is a raging debate over synergy between industrial development and sustainability. It's not only the international pressure of cutting green house gases but also the sensitivity of younger generation towards green practices that can force companies to adopt sustainable methods. Viewed in a broad spectrum, renewable energy sources like wind and solar power are the answers to India's burgeoning energy needs. New energy sources throw enough opportunities for business w...

By Dr. Arvind Kumar* *President, India Water Foundation, New Delhi. Contemporary growth theories make it discernible that environmental sustainability is potentially incompatible with uninterrupted economic growth in the wake of limited resources. Inability to achieve environmental sustainability can even obstruct achievment of long-term economic growth. Given the trade-offs between environment and development, the issue is not to achieve the maximum economic growth or total maintenance of environment, but is one of arriving at optimality both in economic progress and environmental protection, and the concept of sustainable development may be the guiding force. Sustainable development is defined by the Brundtland Report as “development which meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.”1 This definition requires that future generations should at least get as much resources as we have, to meet their needs, but the questio...

Dr Arvind Kumar* *President, India Water Foundation, New Delhi (India). Broadly speaking, there are more than two billion people worldwide who are currently living in regions afflicted with water scarcity and in India in particular, the water crisis is assuming added dimensions in view of rapid shrinking of Himalayan glaciers, brisk depletion of surface and underground water resources as well as pollution of major and small rivers. Presently, millions of people in India do not have access to clean drinking water and the situation is likely to get worsened, keeping in view growing demand for water in India. Having second largest population in the world, India is expected to overtake China by 2050 in terms of population, which would mean increasing strain on water resources as the number of people grows, rapidly growing economy and a vast agricultural sector dependent on scarce water resources. Demand for Water According to broad estimates, India’s average usage of water between the do...

Dr Arvind Kumar* *President, India Water Foundation, New Delhi. The recent drought in southern China, the worst drought in past five decades, has dried up farmers’ fields and left tens of millions of people short of water. But the drought has also created a major public relations problem for the Chinese government in neighboring countries of Cambodia, Laos, Thailand and Vietnam, all sharing Mekong River. Mekong River originates from Tibet and flows into South China Sea. According to a recent report published in New York Times, farmers and fishermen in countries sharing the Mekong River with China have lashed out at China over four dams that span the Chinese portion of the 3,000-mile river. China has reportedly launched a campaign to try to counter the perception that its dams are hijacking the Mekong’s water as the river runs from the Tibetan Plateau to the South China Sea. This has once again focused attention on Tibet wherefrom many rivers originating supply crucial water support to ...