Solutions to Change

  By Sanjay Menon* How many of you will agree with me if I state that the changes in climatic patterns had made the Syrian drought(2002) two or three times more likely, leading to the migration crisis ? The statement can be more convincing if you could recollect the Russian heat wave in 2010, that destroyed the country's wheat crop. It lead to the ban on grain exports, shooting up world food prices, pushing 44 million people below the poverty line across 28 countries. Scientists have proved that Climate change has indeed displaced people from their land, relinquishing stability. The loss of mesic trees in the Sudan-Sahel zone, switching off of Northern seas from polar to more temperate species, the        "water war" in Bolivia have all been similarly authenticated. The most recent being the finding of 2014 as the 'hottest year' since modern records began, around 1850. However, future climatic changes can be described only within ...

By Ms Vinny Davis*   The tiny Himalayan kingdom of Nepal has not seen peace after it became a federal democratic Republic. At a time when, adopting a constitution is cheered as a gateway to the peaceful transition of the democratic process all over, the Nepali experience was little too bitter. Sharing a 1751 Km border with Nepal, India has all reasons to be apprehensive over the political crisis that is spreading its tentacles across Nepal to Indian territories. On September 20, 2015, Nepal   promulgated its secular and democratic constitution, dividing the Himalayan landmass into seven federal provinces for administrative purposes. The 65-year quest for a democratic development from the monarchical rule was finally fructified. Needless to say, it did not go well with the Madhesi tribe who inhabited the Southern Nepal (or the Terai region). Incidentally the same region houses half of the country's population, in spite of it constituting only 1/5 of the tot...

By Archana Mavnur* Oil as a commodity has come to run the world for a long time now. It influences other commodity pricing and world power. The OPEC member countries have had the power over oil production, with Saudi Arabia contributing the maximum to the production and exports. However, the ever increasing oil prices have received a jolt several times in the past with the prices falling, causing an impact on the oil exporting countries. Oil prices have dropped to $ 50 a barrel since mid-2014 from $ 105 per barrel. Though quite a few parallels could be drawn from the 1986- 87 fall in prices, few other independent causes also lead to the fall of oil prices. The shale oil production in the US which increased about 70% since 2008 decreased the dependency for the US to import oil from the OPEC nations, causing a drop in oil prices. During the period of 1986-87 also the world witnessed an increase in the supply of oil from oil tanks in North Sea and Mexico because of which oil...