Full Coverage: Development

30.11.2006 Popular soap opera that portrays a mother in search of a school that will accept her daughter as just another student has sparked a public debate in Brazil on whether or not children with Down's syndrome should be enrolled in standard schools.

29.11.2006 A group of ministers cleared a draft legislation that proposes to allow foreign educational institutions to open campuses in the country. Once the Bill is enacted, Oxford, Harvard and Stanford can set up shop and offer global degrees in India.

29.11.2006 The government will have to more than double its budget allocation for higher education during the 11th Five-Year Plan if it accepts the recommendations of academic bodies that are working out a "proper" budget allocation for higher education.

29.11.2006 Leaders from Government, the private sector, science and technology, media, entertainment and sports from around the world will gather at the United Nations to convey the message that the global community is one family with common values.

28.11.2006 Opportunities to pursue education are dependent upon the availability of adequate access. In the nation as a whole, primary educational facility is available to only to about 70-80 % of the eligible age group ( unto 14 years) of the children. Some of the states are not fortunate to reach even this capacity.

28.11.2006 India’s economic performance in the past two decades has been remarkable, but closer subregional integration would help the country and its neighbors to achieve their full economic potential, a senior ADB official told a press briefing.

28.11.2006 Today, civil society is indeed active and vibrant but that is largely on account of individual drive and concern. We talk of public-private partnerships to build roads and highways, establish power stations and ports. Why not public-civil society alliances in areas of social infrastructure? Ms. Gandhi said at the World Economic Forum meet.

28.11.2006 Community radio is set to move from the margins to the centre with the Union
Government's decision to legitimise it, said Ashish Sen, director of voices.
According to the policy guidelines, non-governmental organisations and other non-profit organisations will be able to apply for community radio licences.

28.11.2006 The Tehelka Summit of the Powerless session on Equal Education saw panelists attack the Central government’s lackadaisical approach to education, especially primary education.

27.11.2006 Concerned over the little space that common people and the civil society get in the budget-making process in India they have formed an alliance to advocate for more people-centric budgets. Over 100 activists, academics, number of government and community women from different states assembled at New Delhi on November 27 and 28th for a consultation on people’s budget and to strengthen this initiative

24.11.2006 Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) has decided to launch a satellite education programme in schools across the country from next year.An initiative of the vocational education department, CBSE, specific lessons would be transmitted through satellite from various regional offices of the board under the programme.

24.11.2006 High GDP growth in India since the beginning of economic reforms has often been accused of promoting growth without a human face.New health data shows improvement in quality of life since 1992. Public health services in India have worsened over the same period.

24.11.2006 The Panchayat Presidentship is not a bed of roses to the newly elected Dalit presidents in the southern districts of Tamil Nadu as a majority of them remain sheer puppets in the hands of the upper castes.

The recent gruesome murder of the newly elected panchayat president belongs to dalit community in Tirunelveli district of sourther Tamil Nadu (India), has once again proved that no political reservation in the local body elections would bring out any change in the plight of the entire Dalit community that remains thrown to the wolves under the oppression of the caste Hindus.

23.11.2006 The scarcity at the heart of the global water crisis is rooted in power, poverty and equality, not in physical availability. There is more than enough water in the world for domestic purposes, for agriculture and for industry. The problem is that some people -- notably the poor -- are systematically excluded from access by their poverty, by their limited legal rights or by public policies.

23.11.2006 The South Asian region contains most of the children in the world who are denied sustained access to basic education. Most of the countries in the region share a common socio-cultural context albeit one which is itself very varied.

23.11.2006 The health ministry is attempting to regulate and standardise the nature of healthcare being provided to Indian citizens by introducing a new law -- the Clinical Establishment Act -- to register all healthcare infrastructure within the next two years.

23.11.2006 Vigorous expansion of trade between developing countries has created "a new geography of global trade," but communications have lagged behind this and other processes that have increased the gravitas of the South, participants agreed at a seminar in Brazil.

23.11.2006 In just two months time the World Social Forum (WSF) will get underway in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, marking the first instance in which Africa is acting as sole host of the event.

22.11.2006 Due to unrelenting pressure by the developed countries, the Doha negotiations have veered from their proclaimed development orientation towards a “market access” direction in which developing countries are pressurised to open up their agricultural, industrial and services sectors.

22.11.2006 Nepal has long played host to all out to climb Mt. Everest. In July 1951, during his visit as Prime Minister of free India to Kathmandu, Nehru affectionately hailed Nepal as the "daughter of the Himalayas".