Navvi

07/30/2015

Mapping Natural Resources in South Asia

As my plane glides over the lush, green forest on the side of the mountains and descends into the narrow valley where the airport is located, I start to feel ...happy? Yes, happiness is the motto of the country of Bhutan—which is actually a kingdom. Interestingly, Bhutan is known for its development…

07/01/2015

Drought prone conflict zones as analyzed by the . Relevant to current reality.

06/23/2015

While the Millennium Development Goals contributed to “tremendous progress for children,” the report said, they also may have indirectly caused the opposite, by inadvertently encouraging nations to measure progress through national averages. “In the rush to make that progress, many focused on the easiest-to-reach children and communities, not those in greatest need.” - Anthony Lake, UNICEF Executive Director

The United Nations Children’s Fund said improvements in national averages had obscured worsening trends among the world’s poorest children.

06/23/2015

Obare used traditional farming methods—as many farmers in Tanzania do—to plant untreated seeds in sunken beds at random distances apart. These practices, along with the improper use of fertilizers and pesticides, reduce yields, leaving little for sale.

06/23/2015

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi gave the nod to increasing the country’s solar capacity five-fold, to a goal of 100 gigawatts by 2022.

06/23/2015

06/18/2015

Competing Claims in the South China Sea Remains Issue After Nearly 70 Years. Read more on Atlas Talks: http://www.navvi.com/blog

The Navvi® Blogger Community

06/18/2015

06/17/2015

"We need informed conversations to hammer out the details required to act and move forward on how to develop and share the Himalayan rivers for an equitable and sustainable future. Complexity of transboundary water issues demands learning from other river basins – like the Nile, Jordan, and Danube - and adapting to local situations. Interconnectedness and interdependence of issues as well as competing and conflicting values and priorities for water allocation make the process of charting a path for the future difficult."

The question of whether and how to harness rivers for irrigation, hydropower generation, urban development and sustainability of ecosystems continues to be an issue of great concern, conflict, and cooperation for this region.

06/17/2015

"Ebola, HIV/AIDS, SARS and MERS - All of those were zoonoses—diseases that initially spread from animals to people. In fact, pathogens infecting wildlife are twice as likely to jump over to humans as those without wildlife hosts... Scientists are developing methods for treating animals and preventing viruses from spreading to the point where they become a public health threat."

As diseases such as Ebola and MERS jump from creatures to humans, we need to keep a closer eye on wildlife illnesses.

06/11/2015

"India has always been keen to secure its border zones once and for all, and has, over the past few decades, kept a close eye on the settlement of people and movement of troops along its borders with Bangladesh, Pakistan and China. That the long-standing issues related to claims along the border may be settled at last means that India will have one less border to worry about, at a time when its relationship with China seems to be moving to a positive note, too."

Read more about Prime Minister Modi's tour: http://www.nst.com.my/node/87440

THE announcement that the border zone between India and Bangladesh might be secured at last, thanks to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to Bangladesh over the weekend, was greeted with some degree of relief by analysts, as it signals a move towards the firming of borderlines and a de-esca…

06/09/2015

http://www.economist.com/blogs/graphicdetail/2014/08/daily-chart-15

From the Himalayas to the Pacific, China’s territorial claims worry its neighbours

06/06/2015

Just as Ebola is winding down in West Africa, another potentially fatal illness has jumped from the Middle East to South Korea and China, spreading fears of a global pandemic.

05/27/2015

As Nepal struggles in the aftermath of devastating earthquakes and aftershocks, the youth of Nepal - from members of the indigenous ethnicities to the Nepali...

05/27/2015

"Ultimately, the biggest challenge is actually getting the goods to the people who really need them. Many of the worst affected communities are scattered in small remote settlements high in the mountains. Landslides are a constant hazard, and Nepal's poor road infrastructure means that it is only possible to transport supplies in relatively small quantities."

http://www.cnn.com/2015/05/25/opinions/fuller-nepal-relief/

Getting the right supplies to the right places poses huge logistical challenge, particularly in remote, largely vertical terrain

05/26/2015

The landslide buried 15 homes along a mountain river and created a huge dam, but no one was reported killed. Officials, however, worry that the dam may burst, creating a dangerous torrent of water.

05/26/2015

The Wonders of Smart Systems:

"Official enthusiasm for online transactions is growing fast. Mr Modi, who turned techno-obsessive when he travelled among the Indian diaspora in America, now uses electronic tablets, not paper, in cabinet meetings. 'Digital India is a big programme,' he says. He launched MyGov.in, a national scheme to crowdsource policy ideas from the public. He is convinced government in Gujarat became less corrupt when land records were put online and bids for official tenders went digital and thus more transparent."

http://www.economist.com/news/special-report/21651330-wonders-smart-systems-playing-leapfrog?fsrc=scn/tw/te/pe/ed/playingleapfrog

No more dodgy cooking-gas deals “THE BEST THING about India is we don’t have to replace anything,” says Sachin Bansal. He founded Flipkart, an online...

05/26/2015

Images of members of the Canadian Armed Forces Disaster Assistance Response Team (DART) hard at work in Nepal. Click here for the latest on Canada's Response to the crisis in Nepal: http://bit.ly/1cNkCpM.