Full Coverage: Governance

31.03.2006 Since the establishment of democracy in 2000, the media reforms in Serbia have been both slow and inconsistent. In order to expedite the approximation to requirements presented by the future EU membership, Serbia needs to give up on its arbitrary media policies and legislation and commit itself to implementation of adopted regulation.

31.03.2006 After the IITs and IIMs, it is now the turn of foreign educational institutions in India to create a quota for the socially and educationally underprivileged.Indian branches of foreign universities may have to reserve seats for scheduled castes, scheduled tribes and other backward classes (OBCs) in keeping with the 93rd Constitutional Amendment Act.

31.03.2006 The Centre mulls creating a new cadre of bureaucrats, proposed to be called the District Panchayat Administrative Service (DPAS), for effective implementation of developmental programmes at the village level.

31.03.2006 There’s no harm as long as the needs of the higher education in general and the universities in particular are properly assessed, and the decision is taken in consultation with the UGC.

31.03.2006 key component of e-governance is to provide governments with a citizen-friendly face. Naturally, G2C (government-to-citizens) is an important element of all e-governance projects.e-Seva is, perhaps, the best example and one of the earliest attempts to take the benefits of e-governance to citizens.

31.03.2006 United Nations Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO) director general Kandeh K Yumkella, in his discussions with commerce and industry minister Kamal Nath, decided to set up a South-South Cooperation Centre in India for dissemination of technological know-how and best practices among developing countries.

31.03.2006 The Kerala High Court has rejected the Indian environment ministry’s clearance to the Athirapilly Project, which seeks to construct a hydro-power project, across the Chalakudy river in the south Indian state. Clearance was rejected on the grounds that no public hearing had been conducted after the Environment Impact Assessment.

31.03.2006 HIV infections in southern India have fallen by a third over a four-year period, raising hopes that the tide of the disease could be reversed in one of the country's worst-hit regions. A study published in the Lancet looked at data from the four south Indian states that account for 75 per cent of India's 5.1 million people infected with the virus.

30.03.2006 Hundreds of journalists marched in the streets of Kathmandu calling for full press freedom in the country. Media personnel, rights activists and professionals joined a rally organised by the Federation of Nepalese Journalists (FNJ) on the occasion of the 51st anniversary of the establishment of FNJ.

30.03.2006 The Head of Microsoft's Rural Computing, Mr Tarun Malik, said Softrack would be part of the company's IT initiative — SAKSHAM (self-sustaining), under which the company plans to roll out 50,000 kiosks over the next three years.

30.03.2006 In a bid to take computers to the rural communities in India, global chip major Intel unveiled a new Ruggedised Personal Computer platform designed to withstand adverse weather conditions including heat, dust and humidity and run on alternate power sources, including the car battery.

30.03.2006 ADB is undertaking an innovative project that will help the most disadvantaged households in Nepal to effectively participate in and benefit from rural development projects through a US$685,000 technical assistance grant.

30.03.2006 The debate is still on. To reduce poverty, should we use redistributive policies like taxation or accelerate growth so that the trickle down effect does the job? It is now clear that neither, by itself, is sufficient to eliminate poverty whether we look at the issue at the international level or at the level of a particular country or region.

30.03.2006 The Sri Lankan President, Mahinda Rajapakse, called upon the members of the South Asian Association for Regional Co-operation (SAARC) to "develop structures" to face the "social and economic challenges collectively and regionally."

30.03.2006 U.S. aid to developing countries leapt to nearly $28 billion last year from under $20 billion in 2004 and barely $11 billion in 2001--a fairly staggering jump. But take Iraq and Afghanistan out of the equation and the story is quite different.

30.03.2006 Nearly three years after declaring the end of the war President Bush is still denying the obvious reality, says Council for a Livable World. So they've assembled a series of quotes from the Iraq War and the Vietnam War for a side by side comparison; check out the similarities and pass them along to a friend!

29.03.2006 The harvest may be bountiful, but rural labourers at the country’s backyard are fighting a grim battle for survival. The benefits of reforms seem to have bypassed them this time too. Surely, it should not have been that way. Government’s professed ideology apart, the country has recorded dramatic rise in gross domestic product (GDP) in the new millennium.

29.03.2006 Though Bihar is cited as an example of bad governance and corruption, these things are not confined to Bihar alone. It is an all-India phenomenon.The Primary Health Care Centres of Bihar are in a pathetic condition. But the average life span of a Bihari is almost on par with the national average.

29.03.2006 Despite all the hullabaloo about India's prowess in IT and sky-rocketing telecom subscriptions, the country still figured at the bottom rung (rank 40) in the World Economic Forum's Global Information Technology Report 2005-2006.

29.03.2006 Despite all the hullabaloo about India's prowess in IT and sky-rocketing telecom subscriptions, the country still figured at the bottom rung (rank 40) in the World Economic Forum's Global Information Technology Report 2005-2006. US topped the list, followed by Singapore, Denmark and Iceland at second third and fourth positions, respectively, in the report released.