Full Coverage: Development

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 In 1990, Amartya Sen observed that the world was short of 100 million women because of excess female mortality in India, China and South Korea. The next year, Ansley Coale put the figure at around 60 million for China, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal and West Asia and Egypt.

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 Despite being the most populous developing country and in the middle of an enormous urbanization process, China contributed very little to the forum billed as the counterbalance to those of the economic elites.

29.03.2006 Contrary to popular perception, information technology has a far greater impact in rural areas than urban centres. A recent survey of 37 e-governance projects, spread across 11 states accorded an overall rating of 8.67 to rural e-governance projects against 8.03 to urban projects

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. US topped the list, followed by Singapore, Denmark and Iceland at second third and fourth positions, respectively, in the report released.

29.03.2006 India can offer quality education, as is provided by the IITs, to foreign students and thus earn money. Mr janmejaya sinha express this view in the financial express.

29.03.2006 Ending weeks of suspense, Pakistan announced that it would extend the South Asian Free Trade Agreement (SAFTA), to be operationalised from July 1, 2006, to India.

28.03.2006 As part of its efforts to strengthen Nepal's educational infrastructure, India will provide a grant assistance of USD 300,000 for construction of a campus building in the western district of Tanahun.