Between June 2000 and August 2003 Punjab, the most prosperous of Pakistan's four provinces, experienced an unusually intense struggle for proprietary rights between the tenant farmers and state institutions over land that the former had tilled for over nine decades.
This paper focuses on the causes of ecosystem degradation. Historically, poor communities have been identified as among the key degrading agents. The thesis of this paper is that such communities do not voluntarily destroy the resource base which is the source of their livelihoods and provides them sustenance. Therefore, the damage that they visibly cause is induced by institutional failure.
As part of the global phenomenon of trade liberalization, Nepal embarked on market-oriented trade reforms in the mid-1980s. These efforts intensified in the early 1990s after the restoration of a democratic system. Nepal's accession to the WTO in 2004 and commitment to comply with many conditions related to restructuring tariff rates and opening the economy in general and the services sector in particular further augmented that process.
South Asia experienced the second-highest economic growth rate among the different regions of the world between 2000 and 2008, including in recent times of economic recession. However, this economic growth has not been accompanied by any notable improvement in the economic position of women in South Asia. The ratio of female to male earnings and economic activity rate has barely improved during these eight years, the share of vulnerable employment in total female employment in South Asia has not decreased significantly.
The purpose of this study is to ascertain the impact of and Sri Lankan policy responses to the global food and financial crises with special emphasis on the country's agricultural sector.
Corruption in India is as old as corruption itself. Why then have successive stories on corruption in high places hogged the headlines in newspapers and magazines, determining the topics tackled by television anchors, paralyzing the parliament, and dominating discourse in political circles?
Energy is crucial to the existence of the societies in the present age. It is the backbone of the economic, industrial and social development of any country. As nations across the world focus on improving their energy paradigms, Pakistan faces the worst energy crisis of its history. The country is into fifth year of the crisis and new dimensions of the problem continue to unfold.
Global food prices nearly doubled during 2004-08 and have remained relatively high since then. In South Asia, food price inflation varied significantly among countries.
Water scarcity is a severe and growing problem in Dhaka, especially in the summers when, except for some rich areas of the city, 90 percent of the city's residents face water shortages, 60 percent of whom face acute crisis. There is no regular water supply in most of the neighbourhoods even during "normal" times, and people are also not satisfied with the quality of water.
South Asia, consisting of India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan, Sri Lanka, Maldives and Afghanistan, is among the most vulnerable and highly sensitive regions to the impact and consequences of climate change. It is known to be the most disaster prone region in the world supporting a huge population of more than 1.3 billion.
