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 …
WITH the ivory towers of Indian science Cracking up under economic pressure And the winds I of liberalisation blowing fircely into the cobwebbed windows of the scientific edifice, the talk in scientif- ft bes. all of a sudden, hinged on hmm accountability and com- e - words that had apparently …
A document on the foreign aid situation pre- pared by the economic relations division of Bangladesh's finance ministry has stated that the country is gradually getting bogged in the quicksands of an increasing debt crisis. The current external debts amount to a staggering US $16 billion. The magnitude of the …
THE Independent Inspection Panel of the World Bank ( WB ) has inspired hope among many environmental activists and organisations. They expect it to provide the much-needed scrutiny of the Bank"s activities, many of which aid and abett the wasteful exploitation of natural resources, environmental degradation and consequent human suffering. …
NARMADAs and, Tehris have been hogging the limelight in India, while a more dramatic and potentially devastating dam on the drawing boards of a neighbouring country - Nepal -has hardly been heard of here. The name of the dam is Arun in, a project designed to be constructed on the …
An unprecedent mining boom is on the cards in Peru as foreign investors make a beeline to grab the opportunities. Foreign investment had come to a standstill since 1970 because of the governments nationalisation programmes and terrorist activities by the dreaded Shining Path guerillas. Foreign investors have taken heart at …
The new buzzword around the us House of Representatives now appears to be "research-spending". The recently announced budget indicates that heads of all the major science agencies who were apprehending severe financial cuts, may escape with minor bruises. The House is due to pass 2 rounds of budget recessions -- …
THE Union budget 1995-96 is a study in warring inclinations. Despite claims of spearheading a "vibrant" and cash-flooded economy, finance minister Manmohan Singh has preferred to keep his purse strings tight as a corset. Expected to consolidate the ongoing reform process, the budget tried to please everyone -- a proposition …
HAPPY days are here again for thousands of women in the Madurai, Ramanathapuram and Kanyakumari districts of Tamil Nadu. Cutthroat moneylenders had better stay away, and drunken, violent husbands restrain their hands. Women can now own land, procure potable water within the village itself. And demolish arrack shops. "It's not …
After almost a year of wrangling over finances, 19 European nations have agreed to build the Large Hadron Collider (IHC). Unbelievable though it may sound, the us $1.6 billion research machine, to be located at Geneva in a 27 km doughnut-shaped tunnel under the French-Swiss border, will enable scientists to …
In a bid to woo the big industry, the West Bengal government will withdraw the 10 per cent luxury tax on cigarettes before the next budget. Keen to give a push to industrialisation, the state government is going all out to give sops to the big companies like Indian Tobacco …
The draft report of a recent study conducted by the Nagpur-based National Environmental Engineering Research, Institute has recommended a tax to finance the disposal of solid waste. The study was conducted for the Bofnbay municipal corporation under the Metropolitan Environmental Improvement Programme. The report recommends that the net financial burden …
The West Bengal government's department of environment has decided to stop funding the state pollution control board for 3 years, during which the board is expected to set its house in order and exploit its full revenue-generation potential. A recent review by the department has come down heavily on the …
An ambitious programme of mapping the land resources of every village panchayat in Kerala has run into trouble. The project was conceived in 1988 by the Kerala Sastra Sahitya Parishad and the Centre for Earth Sciences (ces), but lack of proper funding has since tied in up in knots. While …
THE Indian Renewable Energy Development Agency (ireda), the financing arm of the Union ministry of nonconventional energy sources, is finalising a US$ 100 million assistance package from the Manila-based Asian Development Bank (adb). This follows a technical assistance study initiated by adb in August 1994 at a cost US$ 354,000. …
President Suharto of Indonesia is under fire for allegedly diverting $189 million intended for the forestry ministry's rainforest preservation programme to the state-owned aircraft maker, Industri Pesawat Terbang Negara, as an interest-free loan. Suharto now faces a legal challenge from 11 Indonesian environmental groups who plan to take their case …
FOR decades the Indian power sector has been hounded by the scourge of mounting transmission and distribution losses, currently estimated at 23 per cent of the total power generated in the country, stalling efficient systems operation. But a solution might now be at hand. The Power Finance Corp (PFC), the …
• Panchayats are free to choose their development priorities, allot funds and set time-limits for programme implementation, generate internal resources, collect taxes and impose fines. • They will be able to trade, remove structures and trees, maintain sanitation, drainage, water works and sources of water, regulate use of water and …
UNTIL recently, Virender Singh and Churawan Lal were leading ordinary lives in obscure villages in Madhya Pradesh. On August 20, a change came their way and subjects became rulers. Both were formally endowed with powers under the Madhya Pradesh Panchayati Raj Act, 1993. Singh of Behat in Gwalior district and …
GRAM PANCHAYAT: The village-level council covering 1 or more villages, depending on population. It consists of 10-20 elected members led by the sarpanch and the up-sarpanch. JANPAD PANCHAYAT: The block-level body and second tier of the system, encompassing the gram panchayats within the block. The janpad has 10-25 members, including …
The implementation of panchayati raj is expected to provide a fillip to various grassroot movements in the state, thanks to activists being elected. About 700 sarpanches are affiliated to the Ekta Parishad, an ngo. In Bilaspur, more than 1,000 panches and sarpanches are associated literacy programmes. The Narmada Ghati Nav …
