MANILA: A struggle for control has broken out at the largest power utility in the Philippines after the government put pressure on it to cut rates, and analysts say the dispute could affect privatization of the power sector. The state pension fund, Government Service Insurance System, or GSIS, has called for a management revamp at Manila Electric, or Meralco, in a bid to drive down rates. "I believe we can only bring down rates if we change management and put in somebody who can initiate reforms," said Winston Garcia, president of GSIS.

This report follows up on the World Bank Group

A range of antimalarial drugs were procured from private pharmacies in urban and peri-urban areas in the major cities of six African countries, situated in the part of that continent and the world that is most highly endemic for malaria. Semiquantitative thin-layer chromatography (TLC) and dissolution testing were used to measure active pharmaceutical ingredient content against internationally acceptable standards. 35% of all samples tested failed either or both tests, and were substandard. Further, 33% of treatments collected were artemisinin monotherapies, most of which (78%) were

This paper examines the experiences of private sector participation (PSP) in the water supply and sanitation (WSS) sector. The paper first uses nonmarket failures as a concept to briefly explain why public sector provision of WSS is prone to failures. The widely sought solution, PSP, has not shown encouraging results in the WSS sector. In particular, private resources have not been adequately mobilized to solve WSS sector problems as anticipated by the proponents of PSPs. PSPs in

Solid waste management (SWM) is a matter of great concern in the urban areas of developing countries. This report covers very lucidly the present scenario of SWM in urban areas, the system deficiencies that exist, and the steps that need to be taken to correct SWM practices in compliance with Municipal Solid Waste (Management and Handling) Rules 2000 ratified by the Government of India.

Private participation in roads revived strongly in developing countries in 2005

India has growing shortages of timber and wood-based products. Agro-forestry plantations promoted by wood-based industries and raised by a large number of small farmers and imports play a major role in bridging the demand supply gap. Private sector companies like Wimco and ITC have played a major role in promoting technology based high yielding clonal plantations under agro-forestry on commercial scale.

This paper examines the behaviour of exchange rate pass-through to domestic prices in India after the reforms initiated in the early 1990s. Unlike observed in several countries, it finds a rise in exchange rate pass-through to domestic prices until recent years. Besides economic factors typically associated with economic liberalisation, the persistence of higher inflation is an important factor for the rise in pass-through.

The International Assessment of Agricultural Science and Technology for Development (IAASTD) brought together governments, internatonal organizations and private sector and civil society organizations to address the challenges of food security, food supply, food prices. The task was to assess the current state and future potential of formal and informal knowledge, as well as science and technology, (i) to reduce hunger and poverty, (ii) to improve rural livelihoods, and (iii) to facilitate equitabble, sustainable development.

India has added two more swanky symbols to bolster its first-world ambitions: the Rajiv Gandhi international airport in Hyderabad and the gleaming Bengaluru international airport in our software capital. But look beneath this glitzy fa

Pages