Full coverage: Development

16.02.2007 The federal cabinet to increase public-private investment in the education sector from the current level of 2.6 per cent of GDP to four per cent is a good step.However, approval of this decision comes with several qualifiers.

15.02.2007 India’s Total Literacy Campaign (TLC) used a new system by making local administrators and community organisations – not central bureaucrats – responsible for implementation. What has been TLC’s lasting impact on the women who administered the programme, worked as volunteer teachers and were taught literacy and numeracy skills.

15.02.2007 The Millennium Development Goal to achieve gender equality in education can only be met by concerted action. Stronger partnerships are needed to increase opportunities for the millions of girls and women excluded from education, but what kind?

14.02.2007 YK:n kehitysohjelma UNDP on nimittänyt Englannin valioliigan Chelseassa pelaavan Didier Drogban hyvän tahdon lähettilääkseen. Norsunluurannikolla syntynyt Drogba alkaa kampanjoida YK:n vuosituhattavoitteiden puolesta.

14.02.2007 The state of California in the United States has for a while been the standard bearer of policy measures that reduce state responsibility in critical areas that were typically the responsibility of public provision earlier. The privatisation of electricity utilities was one infamous example, in which California led the world and ended up providing a textbook case of how not to privatise power distribution.

14.02.2007 Mere expansion of the Indian economy will not address the issues relating to the plight of the Indian child who continues to suffer from under-nourishment, anaemia and lack of basic schooling facilities, Nobel Prize winning economist Amartya Sen said.

13.02.2007 Magsaysay 2001 awardee Rajendra Singh, responsible for reviving thousands of tanks and five rivers in Rajasthan in the last two decades by working with rural poor, has an interesting observation.

12.02.2007 Hiring a private firm to manage the drinking water system in Nepal's capital violates the right to health guarantee in the country's interim constitution, activists are set to argue before the Supreme Court.

12.02.2007 Faced with energetic and widespread popular protests against special economic zones, India has decided to go slow on this particular model of industrialisation based on creating export-oriented tax-free enclaves.

12.02.2007 Euroopan unioni ja Afrikan unioni (AU) aikovat sopia yhteisestä toimintastrategiasta tämän vuoden aikana. Yhteinen strategia on tarkoitus hyväksyä Portugalin puheenjohtajuuskaudella vuoden toisella puoliskolla. Strategian pääpiirteet esitellään kuitenkin jo ensi toukokuussa Saksan kaudella järjestettävässä EU-Afrikka -ministeritapaamisessa.

10.02.2007 l curso esta dirigido a profesionales en sociología y antropología, forestería, agronomía, biología y medio ambiente u otros relacionados con la realidad de nuestras comunidades. El Programa abarca una revisión de los cambios históricos sobre el desarrollo forestal comunitario, problemática y gestión de los recursos forestales, la propiedad, el acceso y el capital social de estos recursos comunes

10.02.2007 En las negociaciones para acordar el V Programa con el FMI se establecerá el marco que delimitará, de manera muy estricta, los márgenes de acción que tendrán las políticas públicas para los próximos 3 años.

08.02.2007 The group of Union ministers has given its recommendation for foreign direct investment in higher education. According to Secretary, Higher Education, reservation rules would also be applicable in the colleges to be opened by the foreign universities. As per policies, the same rules would be applicable for foreign educational institutions as are for domestic institutions.

08.02.2007 Many Bhutanese women and children are dying still dying unnecessarily, according to a report by the National Commission for Women and Children (NCWC). For infants, while pneumonia is the major killer, thousands are still dying from diarrhea. A high proportion of these deaths are in the first weeks of life. Many children are stunted or underweight or lack vital micronutrients

07.02.2007 South Asia still has nearly 400 million poor people in a population of 1.42 billion. Although, on the criteria of purchasing power parity (PPP) of US$ 1 a day, the scale of poverty has come down from 51.3 per cent to 31.3 per cent in 2001, the challenges to overcome poverty are so enormous that the efforts being made to alleviate poverty are far from being equal to the task. Poverty is not just endemic, but it is increasingly concentrated in the lagging regions.

07.02.2007 The Government is for allowing 100 per cent Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in higher education and hinted at making reservation mandatory in the institutions to be set up by foreign universities in the country.

07.02.2007 Seis años después de haber adoptado la moneda estadounidense para todas las transacciones en El Salvador, el gobierno insiste en que la dolarización trajo beneficios económicos. Pero los datos y las percepciones van en otra dirección.

07.02.2007 Durante un viaje a Washington entre el 21 y el 27 de enero, fuentes del Senado, el Congreso y el Departamento de Estado le reconocieron a Solís que si el TLC no es ratificado por la Asamblea Legislativa de Costa Rica, la Iniciativa de la Cuenca del Caribe (ICC) seguirá vigente, desmintiendo uno de los principales argumentos de los que defienden el TLC.

06.02.2007 Delhi’s (and India’s) public schools are actually private schools. Getting access there is no less a achievement than tackling the IIT’s JEE. Perhaps no where is this more true than in the Nation’s capital , where even getting your child into a kindergarten class is so nightmarish that they are governed by court directives and the admissions process is monitored by the Delhi High Court.

06.02.2007 Underscoring its commitment to enabling India to become an innovators nation and bridge the digital divide, IBM (NYSE: IBM) today announced that it imparted training on open standards based technologies to more than 80,000 students in over 745 colleges in India during 2006.