Nearly 65% of adults in the Arab region remain excluded from formal financial systems, according to a new report by the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA). The Annual SDG Review 2025 paints a sobering picture of persistent financial exclusion that is undermining the region’s ability …
July 10, 2006: Industrialist Ratan Tata writes to Union Finance Minister P Chidambaram recommending setting up of a site remediation fund. "Tatas would be willing to spearhead and contribute to such an exercise
WHILE announcing the Rs.60,000-crore debt relief for farmers, it was clear that Finance Minister P. Chidambaram overlooked a crucial aspect of the debt phenomenon, the debt peasants owed to private moneylenders. Talking to mediapersons in the days that followed, he reiterated this oversight. His argument was that it was impossible …
The judgment one reaches on what the current year's Budget will do for farmers will vary depending on whether its provisions are seen as a sui generis exercise or are viewed within a longer term perspective that encompasses an awareness of the continuing and relentless drive to implement neoliberal policies …
ON a first reading, it may appear that the Union government's Budget for 2008-09 is very different from the neoliberal Budgets of the last decade and a half or more. The Budget speech contained an announcement of loan waiver for small and marginal farmers and 25 per cent write-off for …
The US system of immunisation during childhood is a complex mix of private sector and public sector roles and responsibilities. This system has introduced new vaccines into a schedule that protects children and adolescents from 16 infectious diseases. A universal recommendation establishes a medical standard that should be available to …
Many governments have implemented conditional cash transfer (CCT) programmes with the goal of improving options for poor families through interventions in health, nutrition, and education. Families enrolled in CCT programmes receive cash in exchange for complying with certain conditions: preventive health requirements and nutrition supplementation, education, and monitoring designed to …
There were no gasps of surprise when Palaniappan Chidambaram, Indian finance minister, unveiled a populist budget aimed at boosting the chances of the Congress-led governing alliance in the general election due by May 2009. Even so, the details announced on Friday were disappointing for economists concerned about inflation and alarming …
On February 29 when Finance Minister P. Chidambaram takes guard, his batting average is going to look almost Bradmanesque. Three consecutive years of 9-plus per cent growth, income tax growing at an unprecedented 40 per cent per annum, customs duty collection growing despite lower tariffs, agriculture credit doubling in three …
When the National Advisory Council (NAC) was preparing the draft legislation on the right to employment, it had, in the words of one of its key members, Jean Dreze, to
This report, developed by the UN Environment Programme's (UNEP FI) Biodiversity & Ecosystem Services Work stream, argues that the business case for biodiversity and ecosystem services is not just about conserving endangered species, but rather that the benefits provided by biodiversity are valued and accounted for within traditional business risk …
It Is not immediately obvious what role financial markets can play in addressing climate change. Climate change happens slowly and has a global impact on the physical environment, whereas financial markets react to news in fractions of a second and are almost liberated from specific physical locations. the low energy …
The rapid growth of India's exports of commercial services during the period 2000-2006, from US $ 16 billion to US $ 72.8 billion, and of India's share in world exports from 1.1 per cent to 2.7 per cent provides ample evidence of India's international competitiveness in the services sector as …
India has had the most success attracting more private investment in infrastructure in 2006 than any other developing country. Long-standing policies in most other South Asian countries are beginning to bear fruit as well. Nevertheless, delivering the infrastructure services needed to sustain and accelerate growth in South Asia remains a …
For better management and improved access, there are several tools and instruments available to the water manager. This training manual focuses on economic and financial instruments. Economic instruments provide incentives for more efficient water use, either in terms of reduction of water quantity or increasing returns on investment in water …
This dossier is located within the context of increasing global discontent and community protest against interventions of International Financial Institutions (IFIs) in the developing world. It specifically presents a questioning and critique of their operations in tourism. As the nature and impacts of tourism cross boundaries and affects entire regions, …
Philip Morris has ended a controversial 8-year-old program that supported research at dozens of U.S. universities. The tobacco company's decision removes a major factor behind a recent decision by the University of California (UC) to monitor the flow of such support into the 10-campus system.
This is a message that has both sermons and promises. "Stop polluting the Yamuna now,' it says. We don't have to look far for the target of this admonition. Alongside is a non-descript person washing clothes in a river that is more likely to soil them. The promise then: "We …
For years the global malaria effort has been asking for more resources.Now the field needs to figure out a systematic strategy for spending the money effectively.
