View Articles

The Italian economy is continuing to recover from the very deep recession that it shared with most OECD countries, but more can be done to boost resilience, according to a new OECD report. A combination of well-targeted macroeconomic and structural policies would help achieve sustained growth, as well as contribute to fiscal consolidation, it adds.

At last, the UPA Government has conceded that high inflation is inimical to sustained growth of the economy, and has, therefore, welcomed RBI’s new monetary policy trajectory (May 3), which gives precedence to bringing down elevated inflation, even at the risk of lower growth over the short-term. Till recently, Government did not seem overly concerned with what it regarded as essentially food price inflation not amenable to correction in the near term. The budget for 2011-12 presented at the end of February was confidently framed with a GDP growth target of 9 per cent, as against an estimated 8.6 per cent in 2010-11.

Corruption, like prostitution, is the world’s oldest profession. As in the case of prostitution, the methodology, levels and standards of corruption keep changing depending on the socio-economic and political conditions of the society. So one should not unduly get agitated over the high-level corruption cases or the political loyalties of those involved in such cases the country has lately been witnessing.

LUCKNOW: Mayawati Government is under siege in Uttar Pradesh as the leading political parties of the state have started intensive campaign against the large scale corruption in the administration which the BSP supremo is heading for nearly four years. Simultaneously, CBI has arrested a number of the state officials for being involved in corruption.

NEW DELHI: The latest confrontation between the Congress and the BJP over the report on 2G scam finalized unilaterally by the BJP chairman of the Public Accounts Committee of Parliament Dr. Murli Manohar Joshi, has unnerved the Finance Ministry which has been desperately seeking BJP support for the passage of the important financial sector bills in the monsoon session of Parliament.

New York: Two independent United Nations human rights experts today called on the United States to disclose further details of the recent killing of Osama bin Laden, particularly if there were plans to capture him alive.

HA NOI, VIET NAM - Rising labor and other production costs are threatening Asia’s competitiveness and preventing many countries from transitioning beyond the hard-won middle income status they have attained in recent decades, a seminar audience heard today.

Executive Directors of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) have noted that, although the recovery is gaining momentum, limited policy space and incomplete reforms pose risks to the outlook. Accordingly, Directors encouraged the authorities to step up efforts to reconstitute fiscal, external, and financial buffers and to address rigidities in product and labor markets.

New York: The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) has launched an initiative to boost job creation through involving low-income people in Africa in business development programmes as customers, employees, producers or entrepreneurs.