-First Post In an interview with Firstpost, Ajay Chhibber, Regional Director of the UNDP, tells us why India ranks low on the Human Development Index, below China, Sri Lanka and Iran, what we need to do to improve our standing and why welfare schemes are not to be blamed for poor growth or inflation. Excerpts from the interview: * Why does India lag other BRIC countries in the HDI ratings? Compared to the other...

-The Indian Express Osama Ibrahim arrived in Hyderabad a month ago with very specific requirements: he wanted to marry a girl below 20; he would pay Rs 1 lakh to her family as bride price; the marriage would last a month; and that he would leave the country after a divorce. The 44-year-old Sudanese engineer, who has a wife and two children back home, had no problem finding what he wanted. At...

-The United Nations Some 2,000 representatives from 150 governments, indigenous groups, businesses and civil society today gathered at a United Nations-backed conference in Bangkok, Thailand, which aims to find ways to stop wildlife poaching and illegal trading. At the conference of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), delegates will examine some 70 proposals to amend the current wildlife trade system, which has been in...

-The Times of India Amid the debate on a super-rich tax, the pre-Budget Economic Survey on Wednesday argued against raising tax rates significantly; instead, it said that the focus should be on people who have a taxable income but don't pay any income tax. "It is much better to achieve a higher tax-GDP ratio by broadening the base which is taxed rather than increasing marginal tax rates significantly — higher and higher...

-The Economist Government borrowing generates inflation, widens the external deficit and crowds out much-needed investment. Can India now overcome its debt addiction? INDIA has grappled with its public finances for long enough. When presenting its first budget after independence in 1947, the finance minister of the day insisted that the country was not living beyond its means. Yet every budget since has failed to produce a surplus. India borrows more heavily...