Full coverage: Economy

28.02.2006 Focussing attention on bridging the urban and rural divide, the Indian Finance Minister P. Chidambaram announced plans to speed up the pace of building infrastructure, power and irrigation facilities in rural areas. This initiative has been given a filip by Indian President APJ Kalam under his much-talked about PURA scheme (Providing Urban Amerinities in Rural Areas).

28.02.2006 WASHINGTON, D.C., Feb 27 (OneWorld) - The average American family has taken a financial tumble and millions in the country go hungry despite President George W. Bush's sunny assessment of the U.S. economy, say federal data and economists.

27.02.2006 Managing risks with the aid of information technology will help organisations deliver on corporate governance, says Sunil R Chandiramani, Partner-National Director Risk & Business Solutions Ernst & Young India.

27.02.2006 The Economic Survey for the financial year 2005-06 has presented today 27th Feb 2006. Some key feature of this year Economic Survey: India’s overall performance on human development has been mixed in the last decade. Improvements in health indicators like life expectancy and infant mortality rates have been much slower than expected. Progress of social development has varied across States

27.02.2006 International organization Oxfam has called upon EU Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson and his US counterpart Rob Portman to urgently make necessary concessions to ensure that the Doha Round of trade negotiations benefits the developing countries.

27.02.2006 The actual experience shows that the IT revolution can benefit rural areas too. Well known examples in India are the e-choupals of ITC, the Bhoomi land records programme of the Karnataka government, and the e-governance initiatives of many state governments. All these have greatly benefited farmers and other rural folk. Note that all these initiatives are based on computers. I believe that the cell phone, not the computer, will be the real bridge across the digital divide.

26.02.2006 Sri Lankans who are employed in foreign countries sent Rs. 197,967 million to their motherland in 2005. Deputy General Manager of the Sri Lanka Foreign Employment Bureau Mr. L.K. Ruhunage points out that this is a 25% increase compared to the foreign employment income of Rs. 158,290 million in 2004.

26.02.2006 THIMPHU: Established with an aim to promote and preserve the age old traditional weaving heritage of Bhutan the National Handloom Development Project (NHDP) is said to be doing a good business.

25.02.2006 Homebound and disadvantaged women will be the next to benefit from the eHomemakers Network, which harnesses the power of the Internet to provide women with the business skills and technical training to become economically independent.

24.02.2006 World's GSM umbrella body, the GSM Association, and Intel are jointly providing laptop computer users with automatic access to HSDPA and other GSM-based technologies and the ability to connect and roam across global mobile networks.

23.02.2006 KARACHI: Brisk trade was witnessed at the Karachi cotton market on Wednesday when around 14,000 bales changed hands. The Karachi Cotton Association (KCA) spot rate stayed stable at Rs 2,550 per maund.

23.02.2006 Most British people would accept new taxes on goods and services that damage the environment, according to a Guardian/ICM poll which reveals a widespread willingness to make personal sacrifices to tackle the threat of climate change.

23.02.2006 The United Kingdom is giving aid of £20m a year in efforts to stop opium cultivation. However, farmers will not get monetary compensation matching the amount they will lose if they agree to abandon poppy cultivation.

22.02.2006 Former colleague of Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh, Prof Yunus has received coveted prizes like Magsaysay Award, World Food Prize, Gandhi Peace Prize and Indira Gandhi Peace Prize. He spoke to Deccan Herald on micro-credit.

22.02.2006 New Delhi, Feb 21 The International Monetary Fund (IMF) expects the gross domestic product (GDP) growth rate to moderate 6.75% during 2006-07 from 7.5% expected during the current financial year.

21.02.2006 It isn’t chicken feed. Bird flu is beginning to hurt as the Rs 28,000-crore poultry industry is turning out to be the first big casualty of the avian flu virus scare now spreading across the country.

21.02.2006 India's first confirmed cases of the highly pathogenic avian influenza or 'bird flu' surfaced in western Maharashtra state, over the weekend, catching authorities unprepared and threatening the livelihoods of hundreds of thousands of poultry workers, in this populous, farming country.

20.02.2006 Vietnamin talous kasvoi vuonna 2005 ennätykselliset 8,4 prosenttia. Kehitys oli seurausta pääasiassa teollisuuden, viennin sekä ulkomaisten investointien voimakkaasta kasvusta. Vietnam pyrkii ja todennäköisesti myös pystyy nousemaan keskitulotason kehitysmaaksi vuoteen 2010 mennessä.

20.02.2006 Indians bought 4.3 million personal computers in 2005. A booming demand from lay users saw the growth rate of consumer models cross 29 per cent — twice as fast as the corporate end of the business that barely registered 14 per cent, year on year.

17.02.2006 Information available on the web says that Infosys Technologies might face a possible class action suit in California from a law firm for allegedly not paying overtime wages to its employees who are working on H-1B visas there.