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New York: The fact that one billion people on the planet suffer from hunger represents a collective failure by the international community, Ireland told the UN General Assembly, stressing that the time to act together to eradicate this scourge is now.

New York: Vibrant minority groups strengthen countries rather than undermine them, Hungary's Foreign Minister told the UN General Assembly as he warned of “alarming tendencies” to curtail the political, cultural and educational opportunities worldwide in the wake of the financial crisis.

New York: With countries least responsible for climate change bearing the brunt of the man-made phenomenon, sustainable development is being jeopardized by climate change, nations said at the UN General Assembly.

New York: The upsurge in tribal fighting in southern Sudan this year threatens the stability not just of the country but the entire region, a senior Sudanese official told the UN General Assembly, calling for greater commitment from the international community to help bringing last peace.

Paradoxical though it may sound, India's vital power generation sector is in the process of surrendering itself to China by increasingly embracing the latter's technology, using its capital goods and employing its engineers. The process, which many fear has strong security implications, started quietly during the previous United Progressive Alliance (UPA) regime.

'Command Economy' has been a term to describe the central governments drawing up massive economic and social programmes and controlling them with ruthless deadlines. It was customary for the Cold War media to derisively narrate the collapse of such national schemes under bureaucratic fudging in USSR and pre-1980 China. Our PM is not an admirer of the command economy, at least after he became finance minister of the Narasimha Rao government. But his new enthusiasm for centralised scheme management with rigid deadlines signals interesting trends in the functioning of the UPA2.

The liberalisation-privatisation process in industry was initiated in the early eighties. India has since made much headway in this direction in spite of dithering as well stop-go tactics by successive governments in India. But this process is now acquiring a dangerous momentum and dimension.

Cloud Computing? Sounds geeky, isn't it? Actually it's not for the user but yes, of course, for providers. Some of the recent activities of the IT majors like Google, IBM, HP etc related to this phenomenon have seen a reprise from myth to reality. It has already existed among us as a service through software packages but not really with infrastructures and platforms. Now we will see it in reality with the proper blending of Infrastructures, Platforms and Softwares.

Veteran Congressman K Rosiah looks firmly in the saddle, at the behest of the High Command, with rebellious ministers getting back to work, as Andhra Pradesh goes through an economically difficult period of drought, high food prices, swine flu epidemic and a financial crunch. Right from the mourning period for the late lamented Chief Minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy (YSR), a large section of Congress MLAs, mainly the first-time elected, and several Ministers in Rosiah Cabinet have been agitating for anointing his son, 'Jagan' (Mr. Jaganmohan Reddy), to wear his father's mantle.

NEW DELHI: Low level of employment and high prices of essential commodities and foodgrains have to be of utmost concern for the Government and its critics. Both issues have explosive socio-political potential. There cannot be any let-up in the situation in the near future owing to the continuing crisis and slowdown of the economy despite the Manmohan Singh Government trying to soft-peddle it.