Full Coverage: MDGs

31.05.2006 After a delay of five months, the first draft of 11th Plan Approach Papers reached the PMO for approval.According to sources, despite nagging disagreements on the resource mobilisation issue, which kept eluding a consensus, Planning Commission deputy chairman Montek Singh Aluwaliah finally submitted the papers for approval.

31.05.2006 The European Union Foreign Ministers on Monday ordered the listing of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) as a banned organisation. Western diplomats said that the decision was taken at a meeting of the General Affairs and External Relations Council in Brussels.

31.05.2006 Education Minister Lt Gen (r) Javed Ashraf Qazi has said 45 percent of students dropped out before completing their primary education, and there were a number of factors behind this high rate. We are giving salaries lower than domestic servants’ to teachers. What can you expect them to deliver? What results can matriculate 3rd division teachers produce?

31.05.2006 According to new data in the UNAIDS 2006 Report on the global AIDS epidemic, the AIDS epidemic appears to be slowing down globally, but new infections are continuing to increase in certain regions and countries. The report also shows that important progress has been made in country AIDS responses, including increases in funding and access to treatment, and decreases in HIV prevalence among young people in some countries over the past five years.

31.05.2006 A new report by UNAIDS says though progress has been made in tackling AIDS, the epidemic continues to outpace response. New data in the UNAIDS 2006 Report on the global AIDS epidemic says that the epidemic appears to be slowing down globally, but new infections are continuing to increase in certain regions and countries. Read press release by UNAIDS.

30.05.2006 The Central Board of Secondary Education would introduce scholarships for girl students and a slew of reforms from the coming year to make the examination more stress-free and help students perform better.

30.05.2006 “L’impegno italiano nella lotta all’Aids è fatto di promesse, molte delle quali non mantenute. L’Italia non può più tradire gli impegni presi in sede internazionali e soprattutto di fronte ai 40 milioni di sieropositivi di tutto il mondo”. Questa la richiesta che Marco De Ponte, segretario generale di ActionAid International, rivolge alle autorità politiche italiane alla vigilia dell’apertura della Sessione Speciale dell’Assemblea Generale delle Nazioni Unite (UNGASS), nel corso della quale verrà fatto il punto sullo stato di diffusione dell’Aids e verranno definite le linee politiche future della risposta globale alla pandemia. La legge finanziaria 2006 ha tagliato 245 milioni di euro al capitolo di spesa che tradizionalmente finanzia il Fondo Globale, facendo venire a mancare i 130 milioni di euro ad esso destinati per l’anno in corso. “Chiediamo al Consiglio dei Ministri di emanare urgentemente un decreto che consenta l’erogazione dei 150 milioni di euro che l’Italia deve Fondo Globale per la Lotta all’Aids, Tubercolosi e Malaria”.

30.05.2006 "L'Italia rilanci una politica giusta di lotta alla povertà attuando appieno la cancellazione del debito nel rispetto nel della legge 209. Al Governo entrante chiediamo di aprire una stagione nuova di solidarietà e cooperazione italiana con una coerente cancellazione del debito" - chiede la Campagna Sdebitarsi. La settimana scorsa il Governo uscente ha presentato in parlamento la relazione sull'applicazione della legge 209 che disciplina la cancellazione del debito da parte dell'Italia. "La prima denuncia che doverosamente avanziamo è per il ritardo vergognoso con cui la relazione è stata presentata: la legge 209 prevedeva che ciò avvenisse entro il 30 settembre del 2005". Purtroppo la relazione non dice nulla di nuovo e conferma la tendenza sviluppata nel corso degli anni di governo Berlusconi in linea con il progressivo azzeramento degli impegni nel campo della lotta alla povertà e finanziamenti allo sviluppo, restringendo al minimo le cancellazioni previste dalla legge 209.

30.05.2006 Pjesëtarët e komunitetit rom, ashkalinj dhe egjiptas, që bashkërisht janë quajtur si komuniteti RAE, pas një programi “Për të gjithë shkrim dhe lexim”, thuhet se janë vetëdijesuar për rëndësinë e edukimit dhe mos braktisjes së shkollave.

30.05.2006 If equity, justice, redressal are not built into our ICT strategies, all we will have accomplished is to upgrade our worlds, not change them. A person form Andhra spoke to Samuha members of how a person with a disability had accessed financial assistance through the government's ICT kiosks, and how, immediately after, a Panchayat official had come up to this person, and had asked him to ‘deposit' the funds with him.

30.05.2006 Of the 680 million children of primary school age in developing countries, 103 million do not attend school, with 57 percent of these children girls and 74 percent living in South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa. More than 1/3rd of girls in South Asia never receive a formal education; adult women there have the lowest literacy rate in the world.

30.05.2006 The Non-Aligned Movement, which exists to give voice to developing countries and advance a more democratic international order, must move forward with the United Nations towards their shared goals, Secretary-General Kofi Annan said.

30.05.2006 The National Human Rights Commission should revamp its mandate in the light of massive institutionalised corruption that has left no institution in India untouched.An opinion by C. Raj Kumar.

30.05.2006 India has launched "Operation Marham" (Operation Balm) under which it is rushing naval ships and Indian Air Force aircraft loaded with relief supplies and medical aid to earthquake-affected Indonesia.

30.05.2006 Indonesia's government declared a state of emergency late on thr night of 28 May 2006 after a quake killed more than 4,600 people early on 27 May. Vice President Jusuf Kalla said the emergency period would last three months and the government aimed to complete "reconstruction and rehabilitation" within a year.

30.05.2006 The weaknesses in the education system and the concurrent challenges of poverty and fears mean that children are not performing well in school.

29.05.2006 For the first time in the history of India, more than 5 million Musahars - the most disadvantaged section of India's Dalit Population in Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Orissa and West Bengal – are joining hands to wage struggles against their miserable conditions in Independent India.

29.05.2006 As South Asia enjoys unprecedented economic growth, soaring summer temperatures have highlighted a chronic shortage of electricity that is crippling enterprise and leaving millions to suffer without any hope of respite, reports.

29.05.2006 India said it is ready to work with Nepal in the development and fostering of democracy in the Himalayan country.This was stated by the Minister of State for External Affairs Anand Sharma during talks with Nepal's Deputy Premier and Foreign Minister K P Sharma Oli, here on the sidelines of the Ministerial Meeting of the Coordinating Bureau of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM).

29.05.2006 Technical education institutions in Rajasthan will adopt nearby villages from the next academic session to promote self-employment among the youth and women by imparting vocational education to them.