Washington: The World Bank on Tuesday put the blame for rising food prices in South Asia on export controls by India and others. The US also criticized New Delhi's handling of the crisis, stating the trade bans have rattled international markets. Surging food prices have become a serious concern in South Asia where food insecurity is relatively high, the World Bank Report on Global Development Finance said. "The situation has become increasingly acute across the region
Afghanistan's agriculture ministry has called for us $2.5- billion international aid to boost its ailing agriculture sector by 2011. The fund will help the government eliminate poppy
By 7 a.m., the bakers of Sang Tarashi Street have been hard at work for hours, shaping globs of dough, slapping them into a hot clay oven and flipping them out at just the right second. A stack of naan sits invitingly by the window, and the familiar morning smell wafts into the street.
The long-forgotten Iran-Pakistan-India (IPI) and Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI) gas pipeline projects are back in active consideration.
The much-talked about Indo-Iran JL gas pipeline project has been on the backburner for sometime now. However, there are alternative projects that are being explored, one such being the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (tapi) pipeline.
The United Progressive Alliance government has done well to join the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India pipeline sponsored by the Asian Development Bank. But it should guard against the temptation of viewing the project as a substitute for the proposed Iran-Pakistan-India (IPI) pipeline. Given high global oil prices and its growing energy needs, India needs all the gas it can get.
The Petroleum Ministers of Turkmenistan, Afghanistan, Pakistan and India signed an agreement on Thursday for the $7.6 million-TAPI gas pipeline project, describing it as "financially and economically viable' despite the escalation in costs since the time it was first proposed. Two-day deliberations
Pakistan, India, Turkmenistan and Afghanistan on Thursday agreed to start construction of a gas pipeline project involving the four nations in the year 2010. Ministers from all four countries had earlier held a two-day discussion starting on Wednesday to finalise the modalities. The second meeting of the technical working group of the four countries was held on Thursday before a joint press conference by the four ministers. The discussions were facilitated by a team of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) led by country director Peter Fedon.
