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 …
Finance terms explained Mutual funds Mutual funds are a form of collective investments that pools money from many investors and invests their money in stocks, bonds, short-term money market instruments, and/or other securities. A closed-end fund is a collective investment scheme with a limited number of shares, against an open-end …
Africa's largest slum, has got a radio station. A five-story apartment building at the edge of Kibera in Nairobi, Kenya recently sprouted a new antenna
pakistan's plan of a 25-km elevated expressway in Karachi, linking the city's airport and two ports, has triggered protests in the country. Opponents of the us $350 million project point at financial unviability and a skewed environment impact assessment (eia) report. But the City District Government Karachi (cdgk), the project …
French multinational Lafarge's limestone quarries in Meghalaya, which supply raw material to its cement plant across the border in Bangladesh have been shut down by the government. This comes nearly a year after an official of the Union Ministry of Environment and forests (moef) found that the mining lease area …
>> Sicko, Produced and directed by Michael Moore, 125 minutes, USA Michael Moore has penchant for turning polemics into cinema. And good cinema at that. His first film, Roger and Me, delineated the economic plight of small us town in the wake of General Motors' decision to close down its …
Increasing Chinese investment in Africa is being seen with suspicion, with complaints that China was treating Africa as a colony and supporting oppressive regimes in the continent. In a three-day fair in July in Wuhan, capital of China's Hubei province, China and Africa agreed to co-operate in various sectors like …
A review of the implementation of the Asian Development Banks (adbs) water policy and water supply and sanitation (wss) projects in India has exposed its failings. In 2005, adb funded WaterAid, international ngo, to conduct an independent review of its own water policy implementation in South AsiaIndia, Bangladesh and Nepal. …
Every year, the World Bank channels about US $18-20 billion to developing countries in the form of loans and grants with the ostensible aim of reducing poverty and promoting economic growth. The bank always acts in tandem with its sibling agency, the International Monetary Fund, even in countries that no …
Credit is said to be the lifeblood of agriculture for increasing agricultural production. The District Central Co-operative Banks in Maharashtra have played a significant role in providing crop loans and term loans to farmers through the PACS in the rural areas of state. The sickness of DCCB is mainly due …
Simple laws for registering voluntary organisations To encourage setting up an independent, national level self-regulatory agency for the voluntary sector Suitable tax rebate for encouraging transfers of shares and stock options as forms of donation to voluntary organisations Setting up of joint consultative group of Government and concerned ministry to …
Even as uproar over Paul Wolfowitz' conduct as the World Bank (wb) president is subsiding, the us's nominee for the next president is causing familiar controversy. us President George W Bush nominated Robert Zoellick as the next wb president introducing him as a "committed internationalist, deeply devoted to the mission …
the controversy that had enveloped the World Bank has died down with the nomination of Robert Zoellick to succeed the scandal-hit Paul Wolfowitz. It would, however, be a pity if this opportunity to re-examine more fundamental questions about how the bank is run and its role in developing countries is …
Conventional thinking has it that combating climate change will be a drain on the global economy. But Barclays Capital, a leading investment bank in the us, has recently said that combating climate change could actually boost the world economy and climate change mitigation activities are likely to dominate financial markets. …
A Greenpeace report on May 18 accused oil major ExxonMobil of aiding research against the impacts of climate change. "ExxonMobil is still giving grants to research organisations that question the science of climate change,' says the report. The company gave about us $23 million to such groups from 1998 to …
The Sethusamudram Ship Canal Project's (sscp's) documents concluded that it was going to be a financial white elephant. Many contended otherwise. They claimed that sscp would benefit not just the company undertaking the project, but, more importantly, ships traveling around the Indian peninsula. sscp's detailed project report promised a maximum …
Nuchem is a company in Delhi that develops and sells water/effluent treatment technologies, chemicals and laminated panels. Sudev Barar, its owner, has adopted a Linux-based open-source computing environment. He tells Sopan Joshi why it makes sense for industry to adopt open-source software On adoption of computers I joined the family …
All public expenditure meant for development of a community can be expected to have some benefits for children as well. However, in a country where children are clearly a disadvantaged section, there exists a strong case for identifying that part of the public expenditure specifically earmarked for addressing their needs. …
on april 21, 2007, the Karnataka legislative council (upper house of the legislature) passed an amendment to the state Panchayati Raj Act, 1993, to take over the role of panchayats in selecting beneficiaries for development programmes at the village-level. "If the gram panchayat fails to prepare beneficiaries' list in respect …
