Full Coverage: MDGs

31.01.2007 Network of Civil Society for Peace (NCSP), Kaski, staged a goodwill rally in Pokhara, Nepal urging the Terai residents to continue their agitation peacefully.
The rally, which commenced from Srijana Chowk, passed through New Road and Chipledhunga before converging into a corner meet after reaching Bhimsen Chowk.

31.01.2007 George W. Bush proposes to deal with climate change by means of smoke and mirrors. So what's new? Only that it is no longer just a metaphor. After six years of obfuscation and denial, the United States now insists that we find ways to block some of the sunlight reaching the earth. This means launching either mirrors or clouds of small particles into the atmosphere.

31.01.2007 The United States has asked Bangladesh to re-examine the possibility of restarting negotiations on the Trade and Investment Framework Agreement (TIFA) between the two countries.

29.01.2007 Eighty-four call centres across the country are answering farmers’ queries related to everything from fungus on brinjals to kisan credit cards and prices of insecticides.

29.01.2007 India, which amended its patent laws for TRIPS-compliance in 2005, introduced a clause to ensure that pharmaceuticals did not block the entry of low-cost generic drugs. A year ago this clause blocked Novartis’ patent application for its anti-cancer drug Gleevec. Now, in a major case that will have a profound effect on the affordability of essential medicines in India, Novartis is challenging this unique Indian provision.

29.01.2007 Developing countries led by Indonesia, India, and China issued a strong message to the World Economic Forum under way here that they will not allow attempts to dilute the agricultural negotiations in the Doha Round of trade talks by certain industrialised countries, especially the United States.

27.01.2007 The mammoth World Social Forum (WSF) wound to a close in the Kenyan capital after five days of dialogue, art, poetry, dance, drama and protests led by participants from around the globe who believe "another world is possible" -- the slogan of the global civil society movement.

25.01.2007 Five people have died and a curfew has been imposed in a district in Nepal's plains region after a clash between Maoists and activists for regional autonomy left a student dead.

25.01.2007 From Africa to Asia, activists are reiterating that violence against women remains a threat to the HIV/AIDS fight, and that without governments addressing the matter, winning the war against the disease will be an uphill task.

23.01.2007 World renowned economist and director of the United Nations (UN) Millennium Project, Jeffrey Sachs, is a harbinger of good news. During his visit to Nairobi, capital of Kenya, in mid-January he emphasised that it was still possible to meet the MDGs before 2015.

23.01.2007 Indian public sector majors BSNL and MTNL have promised to deliver a New Year gift to those subscribing to their internet services. Bandwidth on entry level ADSL broadband connections provided through telephone lines are to be raised from 256 kbps to 2 Mbps at no extra cost to the customer.

22.01.2007 PRATHAM’S goal is to ensure that ‘every child is in school -- and is learning well’. Over the last nine years, the NGO claims to have reached out to a million children. Though local governments, citizens and local corporates assist it in its endeavours, the ICICI Bank is performing a lead role. For the second consecutive year the NGO has come out with Annual Status of Education Report (ASER). Rajiv Tikoo of The Financial Express interviews founder trustee Madhav Chavan. Excerpts

22.01.2007 Primary education remains a major problem according to the government and civil society groups now say mother illiteracy remains the key to the problem.
It is the key finding of Pratham - a civil society group actively associated with the government's education policy.

22.01.2007 A different approach to politics, with mechanisms for society to define the kind of country it wants to build through the exercise of direct democracy, is the common purpose driving the social movements participating in the "Mutirao for a New Brazil."

22.01.2007 We were told to come for this celebration because it is a celebration to end poverty," Edward Njeru, driver of a tuktuk (a three-wheel vehicle used as a taxi in urban areas), said about the World Social Forum (WSF).

19.01.2007 A five days training programme on computer applications and its effective usage in advocacy and communications at rural level was organised for the filed functionaries of the Nehru Yuva Kendra Sangathan (NYKS) on 13 – 17 January 2007 at Jehangirabad in Barabanki district in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh.

19.01.2007 The Chancellor of the Exchequer, Gordon Brown, announced an aid of £200 million for the state-run Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan for universal elementary education.India's objective, which is that every single child has education, and the determination to achieve that by 2010, which is the next three years.

18.01.2007 A grant of almost US$2 million from ADB’s Japan Fund for Poverty Reduction (JFPR), financed by the Government of Japan, will help reduce poverty among rural Bhutanese through a pilot project to develop their income-generating skills.

18.01.2007 The pursuit of equality has been a major objective in planning for education in independent India. The commitment to equality of opportunity was emphasized both by the commission on university education set up under S. Radhakrishnan shortly after independence and the education commission of 1964-66 under D.S. Kothari.

18.01.2007 When a pack of stray dogs tore to pieces the eight-year-old daughter of a construction worker, it showed up the social inequalities and other paradoxes of this global information technology (IT) hub.