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Chairperson David Walker agreed on 21 May 2010 to give WTO agriculture negotiators more time to discuss issues among themselves following an EU presentation on a comprehensive “road-map” for drafting tables that will eventually contain their market access commitments.

An International Monetary Fund (IMF) mission led by Ms. Valerie Cerra visited Cape Verde during May 13-25, 2010 to conduct discussions on the eighth and final review under the Policy Support Instrument (PSI). The current PSI was approved by the IMF Executive Board in July 2006, originally for three years, and extended by one year in June 2009. The mission met with Finance Minister Cristina Duarte, Central Bank Governor Carlos Burgo, other government officials, and representatives of the private sector.

It's no aberration that the first anniversary of the return to power of the United Progressive Alliance should coincide with a tsunami of grassroots protests: from Orissa to Maharashtra, and from Tamil Nadu to Uttarakhand, through tribal Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand. The protests represent popular resistance to UPA-2's industrialisation and mining policies and its zealous promotion of gross domestic product (GDP) growth as an end in itself. Central here is the displacement and dispossession of vulnerable people.

There are a number of differences between the Maoist upsurge and the earlier Naxalite violence. For a start, the Maoists do not have the overt backing of any foreign power unlike the Naxalites who were lauded by the Chinese for starting a “prairie fire” in India. The Maoists do not even have the backing of their counterparts in Nepal, who have now taken to the parliamentary path. What this absence of outside support means is that the Maoists have to formulate their own strategies and tactics, for they cannot run to Beijing, as the Naxalites did, for advice.

The Executive Board of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) completed the third and final review of Senegal's performance under an economic program supported by an Exogenous Shock Facility (ESF) arrangement. The approval enables Senegal to draw the remaining amount equivalent to SDR 32.36 million (about US$47.7 million), bringing total disbursements under the ESF arrangement to SDR 121.35 million (about US$178.8 million). The Executive Board also approved waivers for the nonobservance of the performance criteria on the basic fiscal balance and nonconcessional external debt.

Nairobi, Kenya — In a year of fast-paced reform, East African economies continue to improve their performance, finds a new report by IFC and the World Bank.

Spain's economy needs far-reaching and comprehensive reforms. The challenges are severe: a dysfunctional labor market, the deflating property bubble, a large fiscal deficit, heavy private sector and external indebtedness, anemic productivity growth, weak competitiveness, and a banking sector with pockets of weakness. Ambitious fiscal consolidation is underway, recently reinforced and front-loaded. This needs to be complemented with growth-enhancing structural reforms, building on the progress made on product markets and the housing sector, especially overhauling the labor market. A bold pension reform, along the lines proposed by the government, should be quickly adopted. Consolidation and reform of the banking system needs to be accelerated. Such a comprehensive strategy would be helped by broad political and social support, and time is of the essence.

New Delhi: The Prime Minister, Dr. Manmohan Singh boasted of the economic growth during a National Press Conference today in New Delhi on the occasion of completion of one year of UPA Government in its second term. However, he accepted 'the past couple of years' had been exceptionally difficult years for the Indian economy, that is what the opposition have been claiming right from the beginning of his rule.

New Delhi: The ITU World Telecommunication Development Conference (WTDC-10) opened today in Hyderabad with a call to meet the connectivity targets by 2015. This high-level global meeting will focus on development priorities in telecommunications and information and communication technologies (ICT) and agree on the programmes, projects and initiatives to implement them.

Like politics, governance is also an art of managing contradictions. Himachal Pradesh's Prem Kumar Dhumal-led BJP government has, however, failed to faultlessly practise the art for managing the contradictions between environmental protection objectives and needs of the state's economic development. Whatever and whenever efforts to manage these contradictions are made, they often get influenced by the ruling party's partisan interests and governance deficiencies.