View Articles

MANILA, PHILIPPINES - A hydropower project supported by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the governments of Austria and Japan that will enable Bhutan to export clean energy to India has been registered as the first cross-border initiative under the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM).

After months of dithering over supply constraints, denials of the inexorable march of double-digit food prices, and dismissing it as a passing phenomenon on way out, the Centre hit upon the strategy of tossing the problem to the States for a collective assault on the hitherto largely neglected agricultural productivity along with the related problems of prices and markets.

Tug of war is a rather strong term to describe the widening schism between the Congress establishment led by Sonia Gandhi and the UPA government's dominant reform group under Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. Tug of war implies repeated tie by those with equal strength and force. With Sonia Gandhi's overawing grip over the Congress organization and the respect she enjoys among the party workers, all those sitting in South and North Blocs together cannot be a match to her - like the Upanishadic 'purnam eva avashishyate' (Brahman remains in his fullness even if the entire universe is taken away from him).

KOLKATA: In recent times, the joint operation by central and state police forces in West Bengal against the Maoists in Southwest Bengal districts has been partially successful. Home Minister P. Chidambaram's visit to Lalgarh on April 4 gave a boost to the morale of the security forces fighting naxals.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the Swedish Riksbank have signed an agreement to provide the Fund with up to €2.47 billion (about US$3.3 billion).

New York: More than a month after the United Nations and its aid partners appealed for $34 million to respond to the food crisis in Guatemala, less than 10 per cent of that amount has been received, prompting UN officials to express concern over the plight of the estimated 680,000 people in need.

The Executive Boards of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank's International Development Association (IDA) have deemed, on a preliminary assessment, that the Union of the Comoros is eligible for assistance under the enhanced Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) Initiative. The assessment is a step towards forgiveness of the majority of the country's foreign debt stock, which is estimated at US$285.9 million as of end-2009 (US$248.8 million in net present value (NPV) terms).

LUXEMBOURG - Taking a major step in the global fight against fraud and corruption, leading Multilateral Development Banks (MDBs) today signed an agreement to cross debar firms and individuals found to have engaged in wrongdoing in MDB-financed development projects.

There is a lot of brouhaha over homegrown Bharti Airtel's $ 10.7-billion acquisition of a majority of African assets of Kuwait-based Zain Telecom. The deal had been in the news for months after Bharti's abortive attempt to acquire South Africa's MTN, last year. Sunil Mittal, the billionaire Indian who owes his financial fortune to the country's 18-year-old economic reform, had reportedly said in self-praise that “this (Bharti Airtel) is India's first and truly post-Independence multinational. We will demonstrate to the world the business model we have built.” Indians, like Americans, generally hold extremely good opinions about themselves. Both enjoy basking in self glory.

BHOAL: The last week of the month of March was marked by a series of events which put the Madhya Pradesh BJP government in an embarrassing position and dented its public image.