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 …
What a beautiful smile P Chidambaram, India's youthful finance minister, had on his face announcing the final results of the Voluntary Disclosure of Income Scheme (vdis). Some Rs 10,000 crore, equivalent to about us $3 billion or about 5 per cent of the total annual aid flow from the North …
Funding and technology cooperation in the past 17 years indicate that research and development (R&D;) is becoming increasingly globalised. Foreign funding of industrial R&D; in the US increased almost 800 per cent between 1983 and 1990
britain's governing Labour party's abrupt volte-face on November 5 on the plan to ban Formula One racing sponsorship by tobacco companies has become as a major embarrassment. This was one of the electoral promises of the party before the general elections in May, which it won by a landslide. Recently, …
The World Bank has expressed concern over Bangladesh's increased spending on defence. The bank's recent draft report on public expenditure said that "there is creeping increase in defence expenditure, which already accounts for 17-18 per cent of current spending". "This is questionable in view of the tremendous poverty alleviation task …
advances in mobile phone technology could spell the end of hole-in-the-wall cash machines by turning the phone into a portable bank. Using laser systems capable of projecting large quantities of data straight into the eyeball, mobile phones will be able to relay full details of accounts without requiring large display …
'Smarter'money Money, credit card information, and even littte packets of 'electronic money', can now be sent over the Internet without the risk of a third party intercepting and using it. The prospects of a digital economy, in which people 'pay per view' for access to individual pages on the World …
WATCHES with brains tend to be the stuff of science fiction. But soon you will be able to buy a drink with your watch and, if you over-indulge, use it to check where your money went. This is the prospect being offered by Swatch, the Swiss watchmaker, which aims to …
The contentious issues of governance of the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) was resolved at the resumed 19th session of the Governing Council which ended in the UNEP headquarters in Nairobi, Kenya, on April 4. Delegates agreed to set up a high-level committee of ministers and officials in charge of environment …
An allocation of Rs 15.5 million has been made by the government of Sri Lanka to rehabilitate 93 minor irrigation projects in the Attanagalla electorate. A team of technical officers headed by the western provincial minister of irrigation, Sarath Keerthiratna, visited prospective areas in Attanagalla. He was surveying field canals …
green banking has become big business in the Netherlands. Two years ago, politically-correct banking and investment was limited to three small idealistic banks-Triodosbank (originated from the anthroposophic movement which sees human beings in relation to the cosmos), asn Bank (founded by the trade unions) and the Other Investment Fund (founded …
thanks to the Reserve Bank of India (rbi), the colour of money now will not only be green, but will actually have a green edge. rbi governor C Rangarajan inaugurated a system in December 1996, whereby unfit or mutilated notes were turned into bricquets to be used as fuel. Rangarajan …
the World Bank's (wb) efforts to expand its highly successful operations to attract private investment to developing countries have some observers worried that policies on the environment, participation and resettlement are being sidestepped by Bank officials. At their recent annual meeting in Washington, wb directors signalled strong support for expansion …
the Planning Commission has come down heavily upon non-governmental organisations (ngos). Henceforth, no funds would be provided to ngos by the Commission. The move came in the wake of controversies regarding misuse of grants given to some of these organisations. Simultaneously, the government is considering a proposal which calls for …
Research departments in the UK are likely to lose out to international competition due to a severe shortage of equipment required for critical experiments in areas of current research. Multinational companies have already started switching their research collaborations to other countries due to poor infrastructure in research departments here, according …
a huge increase in public spending on science and technology attempts to motivate Japanese researchers towards strengthening the creative research sector. The council for science and technology has asked the national government to spend about us $155 billion on basic research over the next five years. At present, Japan is …
'Species 2000' is the latest UN/World Bank venture to take an integrated look at the world's biodiversity. The current tally puts the total number of plants, animals, fungi and other microorganisms at about 13.5 million species; estimates had varied anywhere between seven to 20 million. The new venture proposes to …
Austerity measures to prop up the crumbling UN, hit by an acute financial crisis, has resulted in the unprecedented step of enrolling unpaid volunteers. This has become necessary, say UN officials, to continue running the organisation. The volunteers are mostly being hired to keep the UN's peacekeeping department afloat. in …
Pay dues, else lose your right to vote: this seems to be the current slogan of the LIN as it seeks to fight its deepening financial crisis. As a first step, it has stripped 35 countries out of a total of 185 of their voting rights. These countries which include …
THE latest sector now to come under the scrutiny of the nation's premier investigative organisation _' 'the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) - are 61 NGOS. These were among'the 564 that had been blacklisted by the Council for Advancement of People's Action and Rural Technology (CAPART) in mid- 1995 for …
A GROUP of 270 fiery advocates forming the National Breast Cancer Coalition, has been persistently and successfully lobbying with the government to increase federal funds on cancer research. Fran Visco, a breast cancer survivor in the us leads this Coalition. The government was spending around us $90 million on breast …
