Full coverage: Development

31.01.2006 The women of the Tistung village in Nepal have formed the Tistung WomenÂ’s Association, according to reports from a researcher, Mr.Ekaram Singh. The panel of women has been constituted with the objective of raising awareness among the locals on health, education and culture.

31.01.2006 A fresh round of research missions is set to probe the seafloor rupture that triggered the devastating tsunami of 2004. But when researchers arrive in the Indian Ocean, they will find some areas are off-limits. Geologists want access to Indian waters to understand the devastating seafloor earthquake in 2004.

31.01.2006 THE TALLY is growing. First it was confined to the frontline agricultural State of Punjab. But now the ultimate symbol of growing rural despair — putting villages up for sale — has spread to central India. Dorli, a sleepy village in Maharashtra's Wardha district, has sounded the bugle.

31.01.2006 Sri Lanka sold a record 308 million kilos of the commodity to overseas buyers last year, a brokering house said on Monday. The tea exports in 2005 were 2.83 per cent higher than in 2004, maintaining a small but steady increase seen in the past three years, the Asia Siyaka Commodities said.

31.01.2006 Crops grown by small farmers are central to food security, health, economic growth, poverty reduction, and social stability in these regions. In determining how best to exploit the existing capacity for genome sequencing, therefore, we believe that crops essential to resource-poor farmers in developing countries should be given highest priority.

30.01.2006 A fresh round of research missions is set to probe the seafloor rupture that triggered the devastating tsunami of 2004. But when researchers arrive in the Indian Ocean, they will find some areas are off-limits. Geologists want access to Indian waters to understand the devastating seafloor earthquake in 2004.

30.01.2006 The leprosy eradication mission, which started at Independence reached a milestone with transmission of the disease reaching negligible levels. For the first time in 50 years, less than one in 10,000 persons contracted the disease last year

30.01.2006 That the first, second and third worlds coexist within India has long been known. A new academic report corroborates this but also speaks of a 'fourth world' left behind in this country of a billion people, that aspires to be a global leader. The country's first ever ‘Social Development Report' warns that, since the economy was liberalised 15 years ago, disparities and inequalities have sharpened and regional imbalances widened to a point where social instability has become a serious threat.

30.01.2006 SAFTA is aimed at reducing existing tariffs to less than 5 per cent within a stipulated time frame to boost trade among the SAARC member countries. India will have to allay fears of other members about its dominance

30.01.2006 The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has permitted IT-enabled rural outlets of corporate entities, agri business centres and NGOs to act as intermediaries to provide financial and banking services in these banks, a move seen by the unions as allowing outsourcing in PSU banks, which they would oppose.

30.01.2006 NEW DELHI: Concerned at the slowdown in agriculture growth, the Ministry of Agriculture has drawn a short-term and long-term strategy to achieve a growth rate of four per cent. It feels that shared responsibility between the Centre and the States in addressing common as well as region-specific constraints in agriculture can help in achieving the four per cent target growth rate in the sector.

30.01.2006 Afghanistan will get firm assurances of international help in London this week and in return it will promise to push on with reforms and tackle corruption and its huge illegal drug trade. A two-day international meeting in London, beginning on Tuesday, is to launch a five-year blue print on development, peace and how best to confront the continuing attacks by government opponents in the impoverished country.

29.01.2006 University Grants Commission (UGC) has created a task force for setting up a National Qualification Framework (NQF) for standardising knowledge and skills of various programmes in different universities and institutions. NQF is a set of principles and guidelines by which the learner's acquired knowledge and skills are registered, enabling the conferring of national recognition.

29.01.2006 To keep pace with the rapid changes in the field of education, the Ministry of HRD is planning to constitute a National Commission for Higher Education. The Commission will keep track of the changes private players becoming a major force, enrollment figures doubling in the next few years, and only 10 per cent students being able to take a graduation degree

29.01.2006 Senior ministers of the Indian government told a group of international investors that India was committed to more reforms in the education sector to ensure that there was no shortage of skilled manpower to sustain an annual growth rate of over 8 per cent in the coming years

27.01.2006 Food production and ownership is under more threat than ever from big business. War on Want brings UK campaigners together with activists from across the world to hear how people are fighting back, London, 25 February.

27.01.2006 We observe that poverty of nations instead of wealth of nations and simultaneous wealth of transnational corporations. The wealth of the world has increased -- multinationals are becoming wealthier, but the majority of the people of the world and most nations of the world, the Least Developed Countries (LDCs), are becoming poorer. Mohammad Zakaria, ActionAid, Bangladesh, analyses the impact of globalization on LDCs and in particularly on Bangladesh. But the article represent south asia.

27.01.2006 After the tsunami, lives and livelihoods are threatened once again by war. The was has caused more disruption to daily life than the tsunamiÂ’s brief but tragic assault. Now there are frightening signs that the country is on the brink of a return to full-scale civil war.

27.01.2006 The Agriculture Development Ministry will promote Sri Lanka's export agriculture crops throughout the world with the assistance of Trade Commissioners serving in Lankan missions abroad. Through this move, the Ministry intends to obtain more foreign exchange earnings, Agriculture Development Minister Chamal Rajapakse said.

27.01.2006 The Government has taken steps to develop and revitalize the tsunami affected fisheries sector in the Trincomalee district.