-The Hindu In the pipeline are visits by Mr.Modi to African countries starting with Kenya likely next month Starting with a proposed visit by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Africa in February, India plans to play a leadership role at the World Trade Organisation (WTO) negotiations to boost the trade prospects of the developing and poor nations. To forge strong alliances on the “development agenda” of the WTO’s ongoing Doha Round of...

-The Times of India New Delhi: India has been attracting severe criticism from the international community for its poor mix of contraceptive methods. This despite India registering the highest contraceptive prevalence rate for sterilisation at 36.9% as compared to other countries with similar demographics. The US trails India recording a 36.3% rate, china follows at 33.2% and Brazil at 34.2%. The huge share of female sterilisation coupled with slow pace in adoption...

-Economic and Political Weekly India plays a poor hand at the World Trade Organization's negotiations. The idea that there is no longer a sharp divide between the global North and the global South has been disproved in ample measure by the decisions taken last month in Nairobi at the 10th ministerial conference of the World Trade Organization (WTO). The essence of the final communique is that the 14-year-old Doha “Development” Agenda (DDA)...

-The Hindu The Modi government’s policy is choking domestic demand at a time when global demand is also weak. This is hardly a recipe for double-digit growth. The title seems provocative. After all, for the last several months, we have all heard that India is now the fastest growing large economy in the world. The Finance Minister keeps assuring us that the country’s economic revival is on a firm footing and that...

-The Hindu A key to understanding the effect of driving restrictions on emission levels would be to analyse what substitutions citizens will make for private vehicle trips during restriction hours It will be an unusual start to the New Year for Delhi. The city will be subject to the much-discussed driving restrictions, according to which between 8 a.m. and 8 p.m. most private vehicle operators will only be able to take their...