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New Delhi: Net bank credit to infrastructure in 2009-10 defined as the difference between outstanding gross deployment of bank credit to infrastructure in March 2009 and March 2010, increased substantially in the current fiscal. As compared to net bank credit increase of Rs. 64,322 crore during April-November 2009-2010 there has been an increase of Rs. 1,02,301 crore during April-November 2010, showing 59% rise.

New Delhi: Robust growth and steady fiscal consolidation have been the hallmark of the Indian economy in the year 2010-11 so far. The growth rate has been 8.6 percent in 2010-11 and is expected to be around 9 percent in the next fiscal year. The growth has been broad based with a rebound in the Agriculture sector which is expected to grow around 5.4 per cent. Manufacturing and Services sector have registered impressive gains. Savings and investment are looking up while exports are rising. However food inflation, higher commodity prices and volatility in global commodity markets have been a cause of concern underscoring the need of fiscal consolidation and stronger reserves.

KOLKATA: The resilience and flexibility of Indian democracy was proved again when an ULFA delegation, led by its chairman Arabinda Rajkhowa, met the Prime Minister and the Home Minister in the middle of this month, sat across the table and talked face to face. Till a year ago, such a development would have been unthinkable. Here were the leaders of a banned organization whose avowed aim was Assam’s secession from India and making it an independent country, leaders who were till the other day being hunted by the State and hiding in foreign lands, giving up secession as their goal and discussing with the leaders of the Government how to accommodate their demands within the federal framework of the country.

Caught between an inherited fiscal profligacy and alarmingly high level current account deficit, Union Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee has little choice but to open up the economy further to get long term foreign fund flows into the economy by liberalizing the foreign direct investment rules in a host of sectors, including retail and insurance. Mukherjee has so no soft option to deal with the current account deficit, slowdown in foreign direct investments (FDI), 30 per cent contraction in non-resident Indian (NRI) term deposits, falling remittances, high import expansion, export saturation and burgeoning debt service cost, both external and internal.

PORT MORESBY, PAPUA NEW GUINEA - Papua New Guinea (PNG) and the Asian Development Bank today signed a loan worth $57.3 million to reduce power shortages in urban areas. The Secretary for the Department of Treasury, Simon Tosali, Chief Executive Officer of PNG Power Limited Tony Koiri, and Officer-in-Charge of the Asian Development Bank's (ADB) Papua New Guinea Resident Mission Allan Lee signed the loan.

New York: An estimated 75 per cent of the world’s coral reefs are threatened by local human activity, including over-fishing, coastal development and pollution, and global pressures such as climate change, warming seas and rising ocean acidification, according to a United Nations-backed report unveiled today.

New York : The United Nations Conference on Disarmament (CD), the world’s sole multilateral forum on the issue, must move ahead vigorously on a treaty banning the production of fissile material for nuclear devices or risk slipping into irrelevance, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon warned today.

New York: A transition to a low-carbon “green economy” is crucial for sustainable development, environment ministers from across the world stressed today, concluding the gathering of the Governing Council of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).

New York: UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today urged greater cooperation between the United Nations body dealing with decolonization, the administering countries and the remaining 16 Non-Self-Governing Territories so that the people of these territories can exercise their right to self-determination.

New York: Over 50 Somali refugees, including women and children, apparently drowned when their boat capsized in the Gulf of Aden on Sunday, the highest toll in more than three years in the perilous exodus of thousands fleeing fighting in their homeland, the United Nations reported today.