Full Coverage: Economy

27.07.2007 The cotton has now been dubbed "the killer crop" as continues to take the lives of farmers in the Vidarbha region of western India. High cost of farming and poor returns have taken the lives of nearly 8,000 farmers in four years says activist farmer Kishor Tiwari.

26.07.2007 According to a recently released report by the United Nations
Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), the world's least developed countries (LDC) are falling behind in technology. The report said foreign direct investment (FDI) flows into LDCs had increased substantially three times in the past 10 years but with little contribution to technological apability accumulation in LDCs.

26.07.2007 India currently produces 150,000 tons of e-waste a year but has been slow to regulate disposal with no proper guidelines and law. Delhi itself has 10,000 people who search for gold, copper, palladium, or anything else in the e-waste to reap profit from it even though it is a hazardous task.

26.07.2007 The Green Revolution has been a useful response to food insecurity at a certain point in India's history. But the strategy cannot be a permanent one for a country like India. The fact is that intensive agriculture could happen only with high a level of irrigation, with diversity of ecology, rainfall and water table on which India is lacking.

25.07.2007 The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries have agreed on a new approach to make online shopping safer. They have called on national authorities and business to set out clear, simple policies, explaining steps that customers should follow to make a complaint and then have it resolved.

20.07.2007 Food supply could stretch tight for low-income food-deficit countries, says FAOÂ’s latest report. After a relatively strong growth for four years in a row, production of cereals is predicted to go slow.

18.07.2007 Pakistan NGOs are calling to voice the demands of masses for ending poverty on the worldÂ’s longest banner. The campaign is a follow-up to the events of 07.07.07 that highlighted the need to actualize the Millennium Development Goals.

17.07.2007 International Labour Organization (ILO) plans to organise a seminar on “Labour Market Reforms: The Trade Union Response “in New Delhi, India. The seminar will be attended by the trade unions of the Asia Pacific region to discuss market reforms for increased employment and productivity.

12.07.2007 Sarbuland Khan, the executive coordinator of the Global Alliance for ICT and Development (GAID) in an interview to IPS, states that Information and Communication Technology (ICT) offers the best hope of empowering the poor and involving civil society in the development process. He hits out at governments that do not share information on water, health, food and sanitation.

11.07.2007 The Indian island of Karavatti is desalinating the oceanÂ’s waters into safe drinking water. This has been made feasible by a process involving thermal gradients of the sea at the National Institute of Ocean Technology plant.

11.07.2007 The southern state of Kerala may be the first to ban large businesses in retailing in India. The recent opening up of the retail sector has led to discontent among traders and small vendors.

05.07.2007 ActionAid has criticised UNÂ’s Global Compact for failing to stop corporate human rights violations. Its call for legally binding rules to control corporate activities comes at the eve of the global UN summit on corporate responsibility in Geneva on 5-6 July.

03.07.2007 Hinting at increasing economic disparity in South Asia, despite rapid economic growth, the annual Millennium Development Goals (MDG) report by the UN says that a massive 30 per cent of the population still lives on a dollar a day in the Indian sub continent.