Full coverage: Economy

29.11.2007 A pochi giorni dalla Conferenza delle Nazioni Unite sul Clima (UNFCCC), che si terrà nell'isola indonesiana di Bali dal 3 al 14 dicembre, gli attivisti di Greenpeace si sono arrampicati su una gru del cantiere di Torre Valdaliga Nord di Civitavecchia con un enorme e colorato striscione per denunciare la riconversione a carbone dell'impianto che allontana l'Italia dagli obiettivi di Kyoto. E un rapporto internazionale del WWF presentato ieri anche in Italia mette in evidenza l'impatto devastante del riscaldamento globale nei paesi dell'Asia-Pacifico e particolarmente in Indonesia, il quarto stato più popoloso del mondo. WWF Italia presenterà a Bali un pacchetto di proposte per un "accordo quadro globale vincolante giusto ed equo" e un obiettivo da raggiungere assolutamente nel 2009 e cioè prima della scadenza del Potocollo di Kyoto.

28.11.2007 Autoilun verottaminen hiilidioksidipäästöjen mukaan uhkaa ottaa takapakkia Euroopan unionissa, kun asiaa käsittellään 4. päivänä joulukuuta. Aiemmin tänä vuonna EU ilmoitti kuuluvansa ilmastonmuutoksen vastustajien kärkijoukkoon.

23.11.2007 Moving money will soon be easier, cheaper and user-friendly, once mobile phone money transfer becomes operational. Over 200 million mobile subscribers in India will be among the first beneficiaries of this facility.

23.11.2007 Economist and Nobel laureate Amartya Sen in an interview speaks out his mind and rejects the perceived notions on issues like Islamic terrorism, clash of civilisation, globalisation, war on terror, etc. He believes that civilisation is not just about religion and that the real objective of globalisation ought to be avoidance of inequality.

22.11.2007 Useimmat Latinalaisen Amerikan maat ovat onnistuneet tasapainottamaan talouttaan ja toteuttamaan köyhyyden vähentämistä edesauttavia uudistuksia, kiittelee OECD:n tuore talouskatsaus. Ongelmia kuitenkin riittää: yksi suurimmista ovat maailman suurimpiin kuuluvat tuloerot.

21.11.2007 In September 2007, over 600 people assembled in Indian capital New Delhi to put the World Bank on trial through an independent people’s tribunal. Neil Tangri in his incisive article describes the tribunal as an attempt to renew a silenced debate over neoliberlaism and a direct challenge to the Bank’s monopoly on knowledge.

21.11.2007 Opium accounts for more than half of Afghanistan’s GDP (at 53%) in 2007, says UNODC’s recent Afghan Opium Survey. The total export value of opiates produced and trafficked from the country hit $4 billion this year, of which three-quarters have been made by drug traffickers and insurgents, says Antonio Maria Costa, Executive Director of UNODC.

20.11.2007 No matter how well India is faring in terms of economic growth, its women continue to lag far behind. In South Asia, Indian women are marginally better off than that of Nepal and Pakistan, says the recently released Gender Gap Index brought out by the World Economic Forum.

19.11.2007 General Musharraf would not have thought of a political scenario that has emerged after the imposition of martial law. His hopes for a return of normality have proved evasive, as voices of resistance are gathering force in Pakistan, says Farooq Tariq.

15.11.2007 A new resource, the MDG Monitor, created by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in collaboration with several other UN bodies with assistance from Google and Cisco, is an excellent tool for policymakers, journalists, students and others to learn about the eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

15.11.2007

15.11.2007 Monien Afrikan maiden pitkään jatkunut suotuisa talouskasvu antaa toivoa kestävästä kasvusta. Tämä houkuttaisi ulkomaisia investointeja ja vauhdittaisi köyhyyden vähenemistä, arvioidaan Maailmanpankin raportissa.

15.11.2007 Eight children representing ‘Nine is Mine’ campaign met chairperson of the National Commission for the Protection of Child Rights in New Delhi on Children’s Day in India. They sought her support for demand from government to invest 9% of the GDP on health and education.

14.11.2007 "On surkuhupaisaa, että niin monet Stora Enson työntekijät menettävät Suomessa työnsä. Stora Ensosta ei ole nimittäin meille Brasiliassa mitään hyötyä", sanoo Brasilian maattomien maatyöläisten liikkeen MST:n johtaja.

13.11.2007 Human rights body Amnesty International has expressed concern at the recent political violence and displacement of hundreds of local inhabitants in the eastern Indian state of West Bengal. The governments’s decision to set up an industrial chemical hub in Nandigram had sparked protests from local communities fearing loss of livelihoods.

12.11.2007 Food and Agricultural Organization’s latest prediction of high global prices of cereals in the coming year has led to debates on future prices of agricultural commodities in both rich and poor trading countries. With growing demand for food, feed and industrial use – many countries will pay more for importing cereals than they did before, even though they are expected to import less, the report says.

12.11.2007 Of the hundred and fifty thousand suicides by farmers in India in the last decade, nearly two-thirds have occurred in the region where they have been engaged in growing cash crops. This region today has acquired a dubious distinction of ‘Special Elimination Zone’ or suicide SEZ. The Special Economic Zones are lands earmarked for industrial growth with massive subsidies granted to capitalists.

07.11.2007 Slow internet connections at cafes in Nairobi will shortly speed up, thanks to a deal soon between the Kenyan government and French/US engineering company Alcatel-Lucent, to lay a fibre-optic cable network in the country.

07.11.2007 The newly released Trade and Development Index of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development indicates an emerging positive picture. Even the world’s poorest countries are approaching the Millennium Development Goals, it claims.

06.11.2007 A proposal to grow opium poppy for medical use by the Afghan Senlis Council and the European Parliament has led to outrage among narcotics experts and officials working to end the opium trade. Legalizing poppy production, they fear, will lead to further insecurity among people.