Full Coverage: MDGs

31.01.2006 A fresh round of research missions is set to probe the seafloor rupture that triggered the devastating tsunami of 2004. But when researchers arrive in the Indian Ocean, they will find some areas are off-limits. Geologists want access to Indian waters to understand the devastating seafloor earthquake in 2004.

31.01.2006 THE TALLY is growing. First it was confined to the frontline agricultural State of Punjab. But now the ultimate symbol of growing rural despair — putting villages up for sale — has spread to central India. Dorli, a sleepy village in Maharashtra's Wardha district, has sounded the bugle.

31.01.2006 International agency Oxfam has said that rich countries must change their attitude to world trade negotiations and show leadership to deliver reforms that lift people out of poverty. It wants the EU and US to stop making excuses for not reforming agricultural trade rules and to end their unreasonable demands for developing countries to open industry and services markets.

31.01.2006 Sri Lanka sold a record 308 million kilos of the commodity to overseas buyers last year, a brokering house said on Monday. The tea exports in 2005 were 2.83 per cent higher than in 2004, maintaining a small but steady increase seen in the past three years, the Asia Siyaka Commodities said.

31.01.2006 Crops grown by small farmers are central to food security, health, economic growth, poverty reduction, and social stability in these regions. In determining how best to exploit the existing capacity for genome sequencing, therefore, we believe that crops essential to resource-poor farmers in developing countries should be given highest priority.

31.01.2006 While the Union Budget is being prepared on a war-footing, Finance Minister P Chidambaram comes under pressure from both the Prime Minister's Office and the office of the Deputy Chairman, Planning Commission, to enhance Gross Budgetary Support (GBS) to take care of the social sector.

31.01.2006 A fresh round of research missions is set to probe the seafloor rupture that triggered the devastating tsunami of 2004. But when researchers arrive in the Indian Ocean, they will find some areas are off-limits. Geologists want access to Indian waters to understand the devastating seafloor earthquake in 2004.

31.01.2006 The leprosy eradication mission, which started at Independence reached a milestone with transmission of the disease reaching negligible levels. For the first time in 50 years, less than one in 10,000 persons contracted the disease last year

30.01.2006 INDIA FIGURES among the 10 largest countries where civil registration of births is incomplete — there is a shortfall of about 10 per cent. It is also among the 10 largest countries that did not report economic activity by sex and age between 1995 and 2003, according to 'The World's Women 2005: Progress in Statistics,' a report brought out by the United Nations. Aarti Dhar offers her perspective of the report in The Hindu.

30.01.2006 SAFTA is aimed at reducing existing tariffs to less than 5 per cent within a stipulated time frame to boost trade among the SAARC member countries. India will have to allay fears of other members about its dominance

30.01.2006 The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has permitted IT-enabled rural outlets of corporate entities, agri business centres and NGOs to act as intermediaries to provide financial and banking services in these banks, a move seen by the unions as allowing outsourcing in PSU banks, which they would oppose.

30.01.2006 NEW DELHI: Concerned at the slowdown in agriculture growth, the Ministry of Agriculture has drawn a short-term and long-term strategy to achieve a growth rate of four per cent. It feels that shared responsibility between the Centre and the States in addressing common as well as region-specific constraints in agriculture can help in achieving the four per cent target growth rate in the sector.

30.01.2006 Senior ministers of the Indian government told a group of international investors that India was committed to more reforms in the education sector to ensure that there was no shortage of skilled manpower to sustain an annual growth rate of over 8 per cent in the coming years

27.01.2006 We observe that poverty of nations instead of wealth of nations and simultaneous wealth of transnational corporations. The wealth of the world has increased -- multinationals are becoming wealthier, but the majority of the people of the world and most nations of the world, the Least Developed Countries (LDCs), are becoming poorer. Mohammad Zakaria, ActionAid, Bangladesh, analyses the impact of globalization on LDCs and in particularly on Bangladesh. But the article represent south asia.

27.01.2006 The Agriculture Development Ministry will promote Sri Lanka's export agriculture crops throughout the world with the assistance of Trade Commissioners serving in Lankan missions abroad. Through this move, the Ministry intends to obtain more foreign exchange earnings, Agriculture Development Minister Chamal Rajapakse said.

27.01.2006 The Government has taken steps to develop and revitalize the tsunami affected fisheries sector in the Trincomalee district.

27.01.2006 A Sri Lankan robotics scientist leads an effort to get technology working for poor communities around the world. Read more on the project from Scidev.net.

25.01.2006 United Nations ChildrenÂ’s Fund (UNICEF) has said that they do not support the involvement of children in anything which could lead to violence and has advised against the involvement of children in such events

25.01.2006 The State Bank estimates the potential of Pakistan-India trade in the range of $1 billion to $5.2 billion in a year as according to an analysis of bilateral trade composition in the year 2004 there are 1,181 items worth $3.9 billion common between PakistanÂ’s exports and Indian imports. Similarly, against 2,646 common items of PakistanÂ’s imports worth $7 billion in the year 2004, India had exports worth over $15 billion.

25.01.2006 Thousands of campaigners vow to continue the fight against poverty and are sending their white bands to Prime Minister Tony Blair in a demand that he do the same.