Full Coverage: Governance

31.07.2006 Community forestry in this South Asian nation grew from a seed sown during reforestation of the stripped hills around the capital Kathmandu in the 1960s into a grassroots development movement that today includes some 14,000 users' groups and more than five million people, one-fifth of the population.

31.07.2006 The World Bank, as trustee of the Community Development Carbon Fund (CDCF) has signed two agreements with two Indian companies to promote technologies that may help revolutionize the building material industry—one utilizes a more energy efficient kiln to produce burnt clay bricks, and the other replaces burnt clay brick with fly ash bricks which are manufactured without the use of thermal energy.

28.07.2006 The Forum Syd Balkans Programme (FSBP) Montenegro project organizes the Day of Dialogue with the Youth, dedicated to the topic of Youth, Information and Mobility.

28.07.2006 The Minister of Panchayati Raj Shri Mani Shankar Aiyar informed the Lok Sabha today that his Ministry is preparing a mission mode project for e-governance at the Gram Panchayat level under the National e-Governance Plan.

28.07.2006 In a bid to establish a communication channel to support all its e-governance initiatives, the State Government of Haryana is planning to deploy a statewide area network that will connect the state head quarter office at Chandigarh to all the district head quarters at the Block/ Sub-Division/ Tehsil/ Sub- Tehsil levels.

28.07.2006 Setting aside ideological divisions, observers in India have endorsed the government's decision to quit the Doha development round of the World Trade Organisation, rather than compromise on the issue of the West's agricultural subsides that endanger the livelihoods of hundreds of millions of farmers in India and other developing countries.

27.07.2006 Twenty-five percent of teachers were absent from school, and only about half were teaching, during unannounced visits to a nationally representative sample of government primary schools in India. Absence rates varied from 15 percent in Maharashtra to 42 percent in Jharkhand, with higher rates concentrated in the poorer states.

26.07.2006 The survey NGO Sector in Serbia, conducted by Civic Initiatives and Federation of Serbian NGOs (FENS) at the beginning of the year, clearly demonstrates the deteriorating financial situation of non-governmental organizations in Serbia.

26.07.2006 “Merhamet”, “Dobrotvor”, La Benovalencija and “Caritas” non-governmental organizations believe that Bosnia and Herzegovina has entered a situation they long warned would happen, regarding the collection of VAT and redistribution of funds.

26.07.2006 The Indian Cabinet has approved key amendments to the landmark Right to Information that will restrict citizens’ access to ‘notings’ made by government officials on all files except those related to social and development projects. Angry activists say that such a measure will “take the life out of the law.”

25.07.2006 In the official jargon of current Nepalese politics, armed Maoists who helped topple the world's only Hindu monarchy are no longer ‘rebels'. Neither are they 'terrorists' nor 'anti-government forces'. Instead, they are, to mainstream politicians, 'partners' and 'fellow travellers' in the mission to establish a new Nepali state.

25.07.2006 Even as the global trade talks collapsed in Geneva, India has blamed developed countries for not making substantial cuts in trade-distorting farm subsidies. The Doha development round of the World Trade Organisation now looks set to be suspended for the next few months.

24.07.2006 Villagers Sanjay Colony (Bhagirath Nagar) - in the Indian capital city of Delhi - condemned the Indian and the Delhi government on Sunday for trying to evict them from their homes. They were testifying before a panel of activists and NGOs on how the government planned to uproot a residential area where the government itself had built schools, hospitals and roads for the people.

24.07.2006 A survey on infrastructure in elementary education in India, carried out by the National Institute of Education Planning and Administration (NIEPA), found that 13,857 schools in Madhya Pradesh do not have a school building. Two decades after the launch of a nationwide initiative to ensure that government-run schools have more classrooms and teachers, over 100,000, or nearly 10% of the country’s elementary schools, have only one classroom.

24.07.2006 The Pakistani government is seriously thinking of amending the Hudood ordinances - laws that govern and define behaviour for women and impose harsh penalties if violated - after a television channel had a debate on the controversial laws.

24.07.2006 NEW YORK, Jul 23 (OneWorld) - Mindful that life on Earth is seriously threatened by the continued loss of thousands of plant and animal species, an international group of scientists is calling for the creation of a global forum to help officials craft plans to preserve biodiversity on the planet.

24.07.2006 The study, undertaken by the National Council of Applied Economic Research (NCAER) and supported by the National AIDS Control Organisation and the United Nations Development Programme, has found that not only enrolment of children from HIV households is lower than those from non-HIV households but also the dropout rates are higher and attendance is lower.

24.07.2006 Normal functioning in the education department offices of the entire division continued to be paralysed on the eighth day due to the stalemate caused by the feud between teachers and education department employees.

24.07.2006 Prime Minister Manmohan Singh told the private sector that it has to contribute more than just investment in spreading education.The private institutions should have the freedom to play a proper role in providing education. But, the private sector should contribute more than investment in the field, he said, addressing the platinum jubilee celebrations of the Vidya Bhavan Trust.

22.07.2006 NEW YORK, July 22 (OneWorld) - A prominent rights advocacy group has launched a worldwide campaign this week against "big brothers" trying to block information on the Internet.