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Executive Directors of the IMF have noted that the difficult external environment and domestic political uncertainty are weighing on the economy. They welcomed the authorities’ continued commitment to the program objectives, stressing the importance of sustained policy discipline and accelerated implementation of structural reforms to reinforce the economy’s resilience and boost its growth potential.

NAY PYI TAW, MYANMAR – The Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the Government of Australia are providing $570,000 in technical assistance to strengthen planning and reforms in post-primary education in Myanmar, including secondary education, technical and vocational education and training, and higher education, a vital component to ensuring the country is prepared for opportunities created by ongoing democratic and financial reforms.

LUCKNOW: The PUCL report has made a sensational disclosure that after the Samajwadi Party government was installed, many incidents of attack on the Muslim community took place in Uttar Pradesh, wherein the role of the police and the PAC has not been found to be neutral, and in fact, in some place their behaviour amounted to be patently anti-Muslim.

Politics having degenerated into a saga of corruption scandals, and an erstwhile world model for economic stability turning into a zone prone to turbulence and volatility, India can hardly reclaim, in the near future, its high place as an attractive destination for international investors, no matter the desperately-driven reform agenda since mid-September.

A hysterical, well-orchestrated and organised campaign is underway to malign the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) as an agency of “Green Terror”, which is throttling India’s development by putting environmental obstacles to industrial, mining and hydroelectricity projects. The campaign, backed by Big Business and entrenched interests in real estate, coal, power and other infrastructure sectors, accuses the MoEF of imposing a new “license-permit raj” and throwing a “green noose” around the neck of industry.

It is a safe prediction that there will not be a single dull moment once Anna Hazare’s new team takes to the field. Initially, there may be a show of camaraderie between the anti-corruption crusader from Ralegan Siddhi and his former disciple, Arvind Kejriwal, who has launched his own campaign. But, since both will be catering to the same constituency of the urban middle class, there is bound to be some amount of jostling as each one of them tries to project himself as a bigger saviour of the nation than the other.

WTO members meeting as the committee dealing with food safety and animal and plant health agreed on 18–19 October 2012 to accelerate work on how to defuse disputes with the help of its chairperson.

“Land really is the best art”. Andy Warhol, American artist who was a leading figure in the visual art movement known as pop art, may have said this in a different context. But India’s present generation of politicians has become unrivalled practitioners of the art. The more skilled among them holding reins of power use their skill to grab land for helping their favourites to build business empires or for filling their own coffers. Their usual modus operandi is to acquire farmers land “for public purposes” and then release the acquisitioned land to builders.