NAGESH KUMAR

Afghan Leopards Threatened: After surviving decades of warfare, snow leopards in Afghanistan now face a new threat: foreigners involved in rebuilding the country. Military bases and tourist bazaars present a new market for pelts to be sold as souvenirs. Foreigners are willing to pay prices high enough to encourage impoverished Afghans to break the 2002 hunting ban protecting the leopards. The US

Arun SPosted online: Wednesday, July 30, 2008 at 0336 hrs Print Email

Geneva, July 29: The ministerial level talks here that attempted to clinch a global trade deal failed to achieve a breakthrough after nine long and tense days of discussions mainly due to differences between the US and India on measures to protect the livelihood concerns of poor farmers in the developing world.

THE BJP has warned the government against diluting India's position at WTO negotiations, arguing that it will further hurt the already distressed Indian farmer. The warning came on a day when Geneva talks to liberalise global trade collapsed after big nations failed to agree on how to protect their farmers from increased imports.

July 28: The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in a report "Creating Values for All: Strategies for Doing Business with the Poor", offers strategies and tools for companies to expand beyond traditional business practices and bring in the world's poor as partners in growth and wealth creation.

Diesel, A Transportation Fuel, Is Cheaper For Power Generation Than Traditionally Used Liquid Fuel

Jaideep Mishra NEW DELHI

THERE are reports of crippling shortages of electricity pan-India and rising dieselisation in tandem, to fuel power generation. It seems to point at a deficit in policy making. Note that cross-country trading of electricity remains minuscule, notwithstanding nominally power surplus regions. It's also a fact that the margin on power trading remains clamped at a lowly 4 paise per unit. What's surely required is holistic energy policy.

Kemal Dervis & Jean-Michel

FOR too long, private businesses have not been seen as key drivers of human development. Yet as the world becomes more interdependent, doing business with the poor can not only boost firms' competitiveness, but also help in the fight against poverty. A UNDP report released on Monday offers compelling examples of opportunities that create value for all: both achieving the Millennium Development Goals that have galvanised unprecedented efforts to address the needs of the world's poorest, and attracting business returns.

Caution and consensus must be the watchwords

What the government and its leaders have not taken into account is that these reforms do not depend merely on a numerical majority in the Lok Sabha.

THE TRIUMVIRATE: Leading players in pushing ahead the reforms agenda

KOLKATA, July 27: Amidst widespread fears that food security in the state would come under threat owing to the LF government's industrialisation policy, a report prepared by the state land and land reforms department reveals that in fact only 9,000 acres of farm land in the state has been converted for setting up of industries over the last two years.
Of far more concern, in the context of food security, is the fact that some 15 lakh acres of farm land remain uncultivated in the state every year mainly due to the financial constraints of marginal farmers and bargadars, as per the report.