Showing 11 - 20 of 4,288
The 'billions to trillions' charade
Oped, Published on 23/05/2024
» The international development sector has become fixated on calculating financing gaps. Hardly a day goes by without new estimates of the funds low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) need to meet their climate targets and achieve the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
India Inc must only cheer growth, not question it
News, Andy Mukherjee, Published on 22/05/2024
» Large parts of corporate India aren't exactly feeling the economy's world-beating growth performance. But woe to those who dare to question it.
Why the US can't win trade war with China
Oped, Published on 22/05/2024
» Allegations about China's manufacturing overcapacity have sparked heated discussions among policymakers. During her visit to China in April, US Treasury Secretary Janet L Yellen reportedly argued that "when the global market is flooded by artificially cheap Chinese products, the viability of American and other foreign firms is put into question", adding that it was the same story a decade ago.
Decarbonisation needs joint effort
Oped, Published on 21/05/2024
» As countries around the world experienced record temperatures last year, United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres declared, "We must turn a year of burning heat into a year of burning ambition." But to move away from fossil fuels and unlock the green transition's economic benefits, such as job creation and universal access to clean energy, industry leaders and policymakers must work together to translate the commitments made at the UN Climate Change Conference in Dubai (COP28) into actual renewable gigawatts.
SEA eyes next 20 years of US-China ties
Oped, Kavi Chongkittavorn, Published on 21/05/2024
» What will Southeast Asia be like over the next two decades? Given the unpredictable geopolitical situation, the region will certainly maintain its strategic autonomy in ways that mitigate the ripple effects of the emerging new international order. The multipolar world will be a new ballgame that Southeast Asia has to grapple with. Interestingly, the region's countries also realise that the competition between the US and China is not likely to subside given the tit-for-tat measures they have been conducting with each other. Under such circumstances, what role or leadership can Southeast Asia provide under the Asean roof to ensure that the region will not be marginalised or weaponised? To be precise, how can Asean avoid becoming a pawn in the US-China whirlpool?
Thailand's cannabis U-turn is a cautionary tale
News, Published on 20/05/2024
» Turns out you can have too much of a good thing. Earlier this month, Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin ordered a U-turn on the country's landmark cannabis policy, saying the plant should be soon classified as a narcotic again and its use limited to medical and health purposes.
The popular decimation of India's democracy
Oped, Pranab Bardhan, Published on 18/05/2024
» India's ongoing parliamentary election, in which nearly a billion people casting their votes over a six-week period, should represent an extraordinary exercise of democracy. The bleak reality, however, is that the election appears poised to consolidate a decade-long process of democratic decay, which has included the decimation of liberal institutions and practices and weakening of political competition. After all, the leader who has presided over this process -- Prime Minister Narendra Modi of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) -- remains wildly popular.
Climate change poses health threat
Oped, Published on 17/05/2024
» It is widely believed that climate change is the single biggest threat to human health. A global temperature increase of 2C -- a threshold that will likely be exceeded by the end of the century -- could claim as many as one billion lives, with extreme weather events, heatwaves, droughts, flooding, infectious disease outbreaks, and food shortages among the causes of death. But the situation may, in fact, be far worse because the current forecasts fail to account for the inevitable increase in antimicrobial resistance (AMR).
Stark reality behind economic figures
Oped, Chartchai Parasuk, Published on 16/05/2024
» At the time of writing this, the official Q1 GDP has not been announced by the National Economic and Social Development Council (NESDC). I expect the growth figure will be around 1.2%. My own estimation, using the Output Approach and actual sectoral production index, gives a growth figure of 0.98%. Detailed data are in the below table.
For China, Europe visit part of a wider confrontation
News, Peter Apps, Published on 14/05/2024
» In the Serbian village of Budjanovci outside Belgrade, people have talked for years about the Chinese teams that descended on the area following the shooting down of a US F-117 stealth fighter in March 1999, offering to buy pieces of wreckage taken by villagers as souvenirs.