Full Coverage: International Cooperation

28.09.2006 Annan was addressing the steering committee of the Global Alliance for ICT and Development (GAID) in New York, on Wednesday.

27.09.2006 The foreign minister, M Morshed Khan, delivering Bangladesh’s statement at the UN General Assembly, urged the international community to fulfil their pledges and enhance development assistance to help the LDCs attain the Millennium Development Goals.

22.09.2006 As part of its universal initiative aimed at bringing excellence in education, the Agha Khan Development Network (AKDN), a part of Agha Khan Foundation will set up the Agha Khan Academy in Hyderabad with an outlay of $ 50 million.

21.09.2006 Several developing countries are not reaching sustainable development targets fast enough despite numerous international agreements, says a report, launched here amidst criticism that World Bank energy and mining projects were not doing enough to protect the environment and improve the plight of the poor.

19.09.2006 An African diplomat from one of the world's 50 poorest nations, described as least developed countries (LDCs), once complained that it took about five to 10 years to get a landline telephone connection in his home country -- and an additional five years to get a dial tone on the new phone.

19.09.2006 The unceremonious deportation from Singapore of several prominent Indian critics of the World Bank (WB) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has drawn fresh attention in this country to the autocratic functioning of these financial institutions, now holding their annual meeting in the city-state.

19.09.2006 Strong economic growth in South Asia is creating "political space" for much-needed policy and institutional reforms to accelerate and sustain growth, and tackle long-standing social and economic problems, according to a World Bank report.

19.09.2006 Less than 50 per cent children up to the age of three years do not get the vital immunisation vaccinations in the country. Only 55 per cent children get vaccinated for measles, while 58 per cent children are immunised for diptheria pertussis and tetanus (DPT). Only 15 per cent children in the age group of 9 to 59 months receive the required dose of vitamin A in the country.

19.09.2006 The majority of people in South Asia still face the indignity of open defecation and governments need to ensure that their sanitation programmes address this crisis and help reduce poverty, disease and unnecessary deaths in the region, a report by WaterAid says.

14.09.2006 After months of official wrangling and European stalling, proposals for changing IMF quotas, which determine financial contributions and voting power in the organisation, have coalesced around a small ad hoc increase for four countries, a commitment to make the quota formula more closely match economic realities and an increase in the basic vote.

14.09.2006 The Prime Minister of India and the Presidents of Brazil and South Africa underscored the importance of working together towards a people-centered, inclusive and development-oriented Information Society and renewed their support for the results of the World Summit on Information Society (WSIS), held in Geneva and Tunis, in 2003 and 2005, respectively.

13.09.2006 Andean governments attending the fourteenth summit of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM), agree that the 116-member bloc needs to be modernised, but their approaches to the task range from indifference to enthusiasm, depending on their national political processes.

13.09.2006 The commerce ministry and most educationists are upbeat about 100 per cent foreign direct investment (FDI) in the education sector. The ministry has even thrown open a paper titled, Higher education in India and GATS: An opportunity, for comments.

12.09.2006 Despite its importance, consideration of foreign debt over the last few years has been diffuse and blurred. Whereas in the 1980s foreign debt was the focus of argument, twenty years later it appears as a marginal issue, as much in discussion of public policy on the development financing of alternatives to the current model as in critical theory.

12.09.2006 The week-long 14th summit of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) opened Monday with the usual suspense over whether or not Cuban President Fidel Castro would be participating, although heightened this time by the fact that he is recovering from major surgery and is the leader of the host country.

12.09.2006 The model Right to Education Bill runs into one more hurdle as states find the financial burden of the Bill too high.India’s draft bill on the right to education is in a financial logjam once more with the states saying they cannot implement the Bill unless they receive financial assistance from the Centre.

12.09.2006 The Delhi University Teachers Association (DUTA) in its general body meeting unanimously decided to demonstrate against the Human Resource and Development Ministry's move to convert higher education into a freely tradable service under the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS), to increase fees and to commercialise education.

12.09.2006 The Human Resource Ministry in collaboration with the National Institute of Educational Planning and Administration (NIEPA) is set to closely monitor the credentials of over 1.04 million schools.

11.09.2006 THE World Trade Organization (WTO) is unquestionably the most controversial international organisation today. In this book the author captures the tensions within the WTO as also the developments which have given rise to these complex conflicts. While the author maintains that the biggest challenge facing the WTO is the North-South discord, he also highlights the frequent emergence of South-South and North-North conflicts.The book author by Bhaumik, Chief Economist, Reliance Industries Ltd,Published by:Sage publication, New Delhi, 2006. Price-$29.95/ Rs 320

11.09.2006 Free trade has spurred record economic growth in the Asia-Pacific but also widened income inequality as unskilled workers are left behind by globalization, a UN report said.