Full Coverage: Governance

31.01.2006 Dr. Ibrahim Rugova was the only political leader in former Yugoslavia who embraced nonviolence, says Transnational Foundation director Jan Oberg, who remains convinced that "had his nonviolent policy won the determined support of the international community in the early 1990s, many lives could have been saved and much suffering avoided."

31.01.2006 THE TALLY is growing. First it was confined to the frontline agricultural State of Punjab. But now the ultimate symbol of growing rural despair — putting villages up for sale — has spread to central India. Dorli, a sleepy village in Maharashtra's Wardha district, has sounded the bugle.

31.01.2006 Sri Lanka sold a record 308 million kilos of the commodity to overseas buyers last year, a brokering house said on Monday. The tea exports in 2005 were 2.83 per cent higher than in 2004, maintaining a small but steady increase seen in the past three years, the Asia Siyaka Commodities said.

31.01.2006 While the Union Budget is being prepared on a war-footing, Finance Minister P Chidambaram comes under pressure from both the Prime Minister's Office and the office of the Deputy Chairman, Planning Commission, to enhance Gross Budgetary Support (GBS) to take care of the social sector.

31.01.2006 The leprosy eradication mission, which started at Independence reached a milestone with transmission of the disease reaching negligible levels. For the first time in 50 years, less than one in 10,000 persons contracted the disease last year

31.01.2006 The U.S. has the perfect opportunity to stop the genocide in Darfur when it takes over the presidency of the U.N Security Council this February. A massive call-in campaign will target the U.S. mission to the U.N. Wednesday and a rally for Darfur will take place at the White House Thursday.

30.01.2006 WASHINGTON, D.C., Jan 30 (OneWorld) - A majority of Americans disapprove of President George W. Bush's handling of ethics in government and three out of four U.S. voters want him to disclose his administration's links with corrupt lobbyist Jack Abramoff, according to a poll published over the weekend.

30.01.2006 INDIA FIGURES among the 10 largest countries where civil registration of births is incomplete — there is a shortfall of about 10 per cent. It is also among the 10 largest countries that did not report economic activity by sex and age between 1995 and 2003, according to 'The World's Women 2005: Progress in Statistics,' a report brought out by the United Nations. Aarti Dhar offers her perspective of the report in The Hindu.

30.01.2006 The minister of industries in Tamil Nadu, Nainar Nagendran inaugurated the state government’s multimedia campaign to popularize schemes of the state government.

30.01.2006 That the first, second and third worlds coexist within India has long been known. A new academic report corroborates this but also speaks of a 'fourth world' left behind in this country of a billion people, that aspires to be a global leader. The country's first ever ‘Social Development Report' warns that, since the economy was liberalised 15 years ago, disparities and inequalities have sharpened and regional imbalances widened to a point where social instability has become a serious threat.

30.01.2006 Bahrain will introduce e-voting technology in its next election. Election and referendum director Shaikha Muneera bint Abdulla Al Khalifa described the e-voting in Bahrain as a genuine experiment of democratic transformation to the horizons of the 21st century.

30.01.2006 ActionAid chief executive Ramesh Singh, himself a Nepali, voiced his personal concerns about the current political situation in Nepal in a recent interview with The Kathmandu Post.

30.01.2006 The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has permitted IT-enabled rural outlets of corporate entities, agri business centres and NGOs to act as intermediaries to provide financial and banking services in these banks, a move seen by the unions as allowing outsourcing in PSU banks, which they would oppose.

30.01.2006 NEW DELHI: Concerned at the slowdown in agriculture growth, the Ministry of Agriculture has drawn a short-term and long-term strategy to achieve a growth rate of four per cent. It feels that shared responsibility between the Centre and the States in addressing common as well as region-specific constraints in agriculture can help in achieving the four per cent target growth rate in the sector.

30.01.2006 Afghanistan will get firm assurances of international help in London this week and in return it will promise to push on with reforms and tackle corruption and its huge illegal drug trade. A two-day international meeting in London, beginning on Tuesday, is to launch a five-year blue print on development, peace and how best to confront the continuing attacks by government opponents in the impoverished country.

30.01.2006 To keep pace with the rapid changes in the field of education, the Ministry of HRD is planning to constitute a National Commission for Higher Education. The Commission will keep track of the changes private players becoming a major force, enrollment figures doubling in the next few years, and only 10 per cent students being able to take a graduation degree

30.01.2006 Senior ministers of the Indian government told a group of international investors that India was committed to more reforms in the education sector to ensure that there was no shortage of skilled manpower to sustain an annual growth rate of over 8 per cent in the coming years

27.01.2006 From the suffragettes and the garment workers who inspired the first International Women's Day to Rosa Parks and her allies in the civil rights movement, U.S. women have a long tradition of standing up for justice and peace, says CodePink founder Medea Benjamin. She calls on America's women to take a stand again and join CodePink's "Women Say No to War" campaign.

27.01.2006 The groundwork has been laid to bring Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe to The Hague to face charges of crimes against humanity, but complacency and corruption may leave millions waiting for justice. Others believe prosecution would do little to ease the suffering of the country's embittered citizens, anyway.

27.01.2006 The country's shift to a market economy has been met by widespread protests over high inflation, rising living costs and now the government's decision to delay a 40% increase in basic wages, which it turns out only applies to employees of foreign firms.