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NEW DELHI: Finance Minister Mr. Pranab Mukherjee achieved a major victory for the UPA Government by skillfully pushing through the Lok Sabha on Monday, August 2 the controversial Securities and Insurance Laws (Amendment and Validation) Bill which replaces the ordinance issued on June 18 this year empowering IRDA to deal with the ULIP products as also seeking to set up a joint committee headed by the Finance Minister to resolve regulatory disputes over hybrid instruments. Finance Minister was able to persuade during the day to convince the BJP leaders that the Government has no intention to impinge on the freedom of the regulatory bodies and the Reserve Bank of India's premium role as the regulator will remain.

Executive Directors of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) have commended the authorities of Panama for their sound policies and appropriate policy response to the global financial crisis, which had helped mitigate the effect of the crisis on the economy and the financial sector. The timely implementation of policy measures, particularly in the fiscal area, contributed to the rapid recovery in economic activity and low unemployment. Directors also welcomed the improvement in Panama's sovereign credit rating to investment grade. They stressed that maintenance of sound policies would provide the basis for continued strong economic growth and further reduction in poverty.

The Bharatiya Janata Party periodically behaves as if it had come unhinged from reality. This typically happens on trademark issue of politicised religion, which pits the BJP against the rest of the political spectrum barring the Shiv Sena. Examples are the Babri Masjid—where it insisted, despite lack of historical evidence, that a temple was destroyed—; compulsory chanting of Saraswati vandana in schools; the Uniform Civil Code; rewriting of textbooks along viciously communal lines; and egregious defence of Mr Narendra Modi for the butchery of Muslims in Gujarat in 2002.

It is a curious fact of international diplomacy that the Republicans in America and the Conservatives in Britain - both right-wingers - have been more sympathetic towards India in recent years than the supposedly more liberal Democratic and Labour parties in the US and UK.

Executive Directors of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) have commended the authorities' forceful response to the recession in Russian Federation, noting that the pre-crisis policy of taxing and saving much of the oil windfall in a stabilization fund had created significant space for fiscal expansion, monetary easing, and extraordinary liquidity support to the banking system, while also helping to prevent an abrupt ruble depreciation. Given the near-term prospect of a recovery with lower potential growth, Directors agreed that the main challenges will be to implement medium-term fiscal consolidation, mitigate pressures for real appreciation and inflation, restore the health of the banking system, and improve the investment climate through ambitious structural reforms.

New York: A Siberian plateau that contains pristine tundra, forest and cold-water lakes and is the site of a major reindeer migration route has been added to the United Nations World Heritage List.

Even though Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal continues to be in a politically comfortable position, he faces growing governance challenges. The latest is on the issue of allowing the setting up of a large number of private universities in the state. The decision has been condemned even by the ruling BJP's own student wing the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad.

There has been a chorus of cheers for the Reserve Bank of India for its latest credit policy. The decision to raise interest rates has been welcomed almost universally as a sure cure for the rising inflation graph - raise interest rates and prices would fall. Copybook economics, just like the copybook cricket we have witnessed in Sri Lanka. The match has ended in a draw without any results. This policy likewise might end up without any result eventually. Why?

MANILA, PHILIPPINES - Stronger than expected economic growth in resource rich Timor-Leste has resulted in an upgrade of the Asian Development Bank's (ADB) forecast of economic growth in the Pacific region, according to the latest edition of ADB's Pacific Economic Monitor.

New York: The United Nations agency mandated to conserve the world's heritage has inscribed new cultural sites in Viet Nam, China, Tajikistan, France and the Netherlands on the World Heritage List and agreed to the extension of two cultural properties in Germany and Norway.