Full coverage: Economy

30.12.2005 As bulks of rural development outlays are employment-related, there is considerable scope for the various schemes to be streamlined and re-fashioned as an employment guarantee scheme.

29.12.2005 The South Korean government is encouraging its institutions to move away from their reliance on Windows and Unix and adopt open source software. In a latest development in the country, two state-owned financial institutions planned to launch the country's first Linux-based Internet banking services in December.

29.12.2005 The government has ratified SAFTA and endorsed a tariff liberalization plan (TLP) which will drop prices of Indian as well as other South Asian goods from the next fiscal year.

28.12.2005 The phenomenal growth of mobile phones in Kenya and many other developing countries thought to be too poor to afford the technology is a proof that people believe it is crucial to their well being.

28.12.2005 OECD and Italian Ministery for Innovation and Technologies is jointly organised the conference on the Future Digital Economy: Digital Content Creation, Distribution and Access, from January 30-31, 2006 at Istituto San Michele, Rome, Italy.

28.12.2005 Ghana has entered a phase of accelerated economic expansion over the last three years with real GDP growth now averaging 5.2 percent as against a former average of 4.4 percent. Despite this acceleration in growth, the pressures from a more liberalized global economy are mounting; and in response to increased global competition, the Government of Ghana has identified information and communication technology (ICT) services along with agro-processing, tourism and other value-added sectors as key to further economic growth.

28.12.2005 With three days left to meet the deadline, the trade under South Asia Free Trade Agreement (Safta) among the Sarrc counties from January 1, next year is in doldrums as Sri Lanka says it will ratify Safta draft some time in April next year.

28.12.2005 Pakistan made clear on Tuesday it was not bound to offer a transit facility for trade between Afghanistan and other member states of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC).

28.12.2005 Onions, which were being sold for Rs 1,200 per quintal in Maharashtra’s wholesale markets in October, are now fetching only Rs 300 per quintal with the arrival of the Kharif and late Kharif crops.

27.12.2005 National Dairy Development Board (NDDB) appeared to be keen to re-open sick dairies in Gujarat and as part of this process, inaugurated the Junagadh Dairy here on December 24.

27.12.2005 Public investments which boost yields are falling thanks to rising subsidies, while the rising private investments actually reduce yields, through lowering of the water table, for instance.

27.12.2005 Despite all the attention it gets, the trade accounts for only 10 % of the annual national income of Nepal. And given that average growth rates of flagship export items and major commodities have gone down markedly in recent years. In that context, if one shifts gears from Hong Kong to Kathmandu these questions come up: if trade is so important, why aren’t their many Nepali entrepreneurs engaged in it? The time has come to start shifting the slant of discussion to what changes in policies would lead to easier and more trade and facilitates entrepreneurship culture.

27.12.2005 Widespread poverty and ignorance are forcing more than half the number of children of Danuwar community at Bhimtar village in Sindhupalchok out of schools. They can instead be found wasting their time fishing.

27.12.2005 The World Food Programme (WFP) will continue to support improving immediate access of rural households to health, education and agricultural services in food insecure areas in 2006.

23.12.2005 It was in the year 1997 that the phenomenon of suicides by Indian farmers emerged. Since then it has assumed frightening proportions and till now more than 25,000 farmers have taken their own lives. Only the other day a member of the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly threatened to immolate himself in the house itself and a few days later, the news came that farmers in a particular village near Nagpur were preparing their own funeral pyres to immolate themselves

23.12.2005 A National Human Rights Commission report says that the number of child labourers in UP has seen an increase, the first since around 70,000 bonded children were freed at the behest of the Supreme Court in 1997.

23.12.2005 On the eve of the East Asia Summit, Singapore's Lee Kuan Yew hoped that India "would be a useful balance to China's heft" and that Asia's two ancient civilisations would "again" extend their influence into South-East Asia. "It would mean great prosperity for the region, but could also mean a tussle for power."

23.12.2005 Finance Minister P. Chidambaram favourd decontrol of both sugar and sugarcane prices simultaneously. Speaking on the occasion of 71st AGM of Indian Sugar Mills Association (ISMA) he said: "It appears inconsistent to me that sugar prices are decontrolled and sugarcane prices continue to be regulated. He asked sugar industry to formulate a consistent policy on this.

23.12.2005 The European Commission has issued a Statement of Objections against Microsoft for its failure to comply with certain of its obligations under the March 2004 Commission decision (the “March 2004 Decision”, see IP/04/382).

23.12.2005 UNITED NATIONS, Dec 22 (OneWorld) - Despite significant improvement in economic growth, nearly half of the population on the African continent remains poor and jobless, a new study by the United Nations points out.