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The Grecian urn, on which the 19th century English romantic poet John Keats wrote one of his most critically acclaimed poems, is empty and upside down. Greece's public debt, 120 per cent of the country's GDP, has done it. If the poet were around now, he would probably pen the 'dirge of a dying' Grecian culture under a heavy debt burden.

The United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government will complete its one year in office this week in its second term. Not unusual to take stock after a year. To judge on this score, one can take the UPA II promises put out last year in its election manifesto. While doing this exercise one must remember the context in which the UPA II government functioned in the last one year. And it must be said that this has not been too comfortable.

An International Monetary Fund (IMF) mission led by Mr. David Dunn visited The Gambia during May 7-20, 2010, to conduct discussions for the 2010 Article IV consultation and the seventh review of The Gambia's program under the Extended Credit Facility (ECF).

New York: UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has called for concerted efforts to accelerate efforts to reduce social inequalities in Western Asia through the boosting of decent job opportunities especially for the region's youth.

New York: Enhanced investment in protecting fragile agricultural biodiversity is vital to sustaining the livelihoods of the rural poor, the head of the United Nations rural development arm said.

New York: UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has voiced serious concern over the results of the investigation into the sinking of a navy ship off the coast of the Republic of Korea, alleged by the country to have been carried out by its northern neighbour, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DRPK).

New Delhi: India Meteorological Department is modernising its observational network. Under Ist phase of modernization, India Meteorological Department (IMD) is replacing its old and conventional radar by the state of art S-band Doppler Weather Radar (DWR) in a phased manner at different locations all over the country. This radar will play a vital role for providing information of bad weather events over Delhi and its adjoining areas.

The fiscal year 2009-10 that has just gone by, has been a difficult period for India. The country had to bear the impact of the global financial crisis. What stood India in good stead was its strong economic fundamentals but despite that it could not save itself entirely from the impact. It, however, goes to India's credit that while the world economies went into the red with negative economic growth, India continued to maintain a respectable growth rate. Though the final figures are yet to come out the estimates are that we will post a 7.2 percent growth for this period.

Better city, better life with Information and Communication Technology is the theme of this year’s celebration of World Telecommunications and Information Society Day (WTISD). This day marks the signing of the first International Convention and Foundation of International Telecommunication Union in 1865. World Telecommunication Day is being celebrated annually since 1969. Telecommunication services which because of technological evolution morphed into Telecommunication and Information Services prompted the Plenipotentiary Conference in Antalya to rechristen the World Telecommunication Day as World Telecommunication and Information Society Day.

In May 2005, one year after he took over, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh gave himself six out of ten marks for his government's performance. How would he rate his second innings? How does the country rate his one-year in office? Before judging the UPA 2 performance, one has to bear in mind the circumstances under which the Congress came to power in 2004 and 2009.