POVERTY REDUCTION: OPTIMISM REFLECTS IN
PESSIMIST’S EYE
The shocking reality of life is that
abject poverty denies human beings the
minimum of decent living. No one hopes of
ending poverty in the life of the present
generation. The world population numbers 6
billion now, of whom half are poor.
Dividing the poor into absolute or extreme
poverty, moderate poverty and relative
poverty, the experts concentrate on 1.1
billion people who get by on an income of
less than US $ 1 dollar a day and belong
to the extreme poverty category. These are
the poor who cannot meet basic needs for
survival. They remain continuously hungry
and have no or little access to health
care, safe drinking water, sanitation,
education for their children and
rudimentary shelter. The extreme poverty
is that that kills.
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WILL SAARC TURN INTO AN ECONOMIC UNION?
Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers are
prepared by governments in low-income
countries through a participatory process
involving domestic stakeholders and
external development partners, including
the IMF and the World Bank. A PRSP
describes the macroeconomic, structural
and social policies and programs that a
country will pursue over several years to
promote broad-based growth and reduce
poverty, as well as external financing
needs and the associated sources of
financing.
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RHETORIC OVERSHADOWS REALITY
Ministers and officials insist that a broad,
ambitious deal to cut goods, services and farm
tariffs under Doha is at the top of their
agendas. But the rhetoric about the importance
of getting a deal done has not been matched by
the reality of the negotiations. The dominant
countries in the negotiations, particularly the
European Union (EU) and US, are only now getting
down to the kind of detail they originally
envisaged having agreed by the end of July for
the WTO's traditional summer break.
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SPECIAL REPORT-AVIATION
The cutbacks mean that anyone flying
during hectic travel seasons will find
that a relatively cheap ticket on a big
airline merely buys the flight from Point
A to Point B, and little else. But while
passengers in the rear of the plane are
getting bare-bones service, those in front
on domestic flights - in first and
business class - will receive greater
attention. There, the airlines are
competing for big spenders with better
food, in some cases lie-flat seats once
found only on overseas flights, and a
choice of entertainment.
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ASIAN INSURANCE NEWS
Risk Management Solutions revised its estimate
for insured losses upwards to $8 billion to
$12 billion, from its original estimate of $6
billion to $10 billion. This includes onshore
damage resulting from wind and coastal storm
surge, business interruption and increased
costs for materials and services needed for
repairs (demand surge).
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PODOLINSKY SUCCESS SERIES: The ABCDs of
Presenting
A stands for ATTENTION.
Unless you gain their favourable attention, you
will not have a successful speech. Do not waffle
about at the opening. Get their attention with
something that makes your point and sets the
stage. Make it funny, profound, thought
provoking or startling, but get their ATTENTION.
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GLOOMY PICTURE OF HUMAN DEVELOPMENT
Recent media focus is emphasizing more on the
Corruption Perception Index (CPI) rather than
the more important and statistically robust
indicator Human Development Index (HDI). CPI is
a quantitative measure of some qualitative
surveys of perceptions that can be subjected to
what people actually think rather than what
actually is; people in different countries can
define corruption very differently. Another
problem is due to lack of information CPI uses
different data from sources for different
countries making country to country comparison
susceptible to criticism.
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PROPER POLICIES OUGHT TO GUIDE
Investment in education is a social
investment. Such investment can only be
appropriate and effective if it ensures the
availability of an educated or literate
workforce with varied skills for successful
application in different forms of economic
activities. When experts and economists press
their recommendation for higher spending on
education by the government they consider the
process as the most effective spur or catalyst
to hasten economic growth. More...
10 WAYS TO PLEASE US, THE CUSTOMERS
In a tongue-in-cheek piece carried by the New
York Times recently, David Pogue had the
following advice to electronics makers. Blogs
had a field day on the Internet, some of which
is in a separate piece.
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AGRICULTURE
Nurseries are raised on well prepared one
metre wide and three meters long strip. Before
broadcasting the seeds, straws or farm yard
manure is burned on the strips after which seeds
are broadcast and pressed in the soil and
covered with a thin layer of soil. These are
then covered with layers of straws supported by
wooden sticks with water application in the
morning and evening till the seeds germinate.
After germination straw is removed and water is
applied after every 4-5 days. Within six weeks
seedlings become ready for transplanting.
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NEW LAWS TO COVER FOREIGN INVESTMENT
BANGLADESH TO PARTICIPATE IN INFOCOM 2005 FAIR
IN KOLKATA
TWENTY-FIVE WAYS TO ELIMINATE STRESS
MARKET TRENDS: THE FUTURE LOOKS GOOD
TINY INVESTMENTS, BIG CHANGES
When Pierre Omidyar started eBay 10 years ago,
he aimed to help individuals create online
businesses that could compete on a level playing
field with corporate giants. Today, some 750,000
people make a full- or part-time living by
selling on eBay.
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