The government on Tuesday expressed shock over reports of embezzlement of UK grants in Sarva Siksha Abhiyan scheme and said that the flagship programme follows "rigorous and robust monitoring system". A day after the British government launched an inquiry into the alleged misuse of its funds under SSA, Department of School Education and Literacy under HRD Ministry here said it will write to the Ministry of Finance and Ministry of External...

Just as microcredit on its own does not represent full financial inclusion, it is our view that neither do business correspondent accounts In a country of 1.2 billion individuals, if we exclude children, we should at least have 900 million bank account holders before we can say the job of basic inclusion in banking is complete. No matter how we count, however, the actual number of bank account holders do not...

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today called on world leaders to attend a summit next September to boost efforts to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), which seek to slash a host of social ills, ranging from extreme poverty and hunger to maternal and infant mortality to lack of access to education and health care, all by 2015. “Coming amid mixed progress toward the Goals and new crises that threaten the global...

The collapse of the Dubai dream is not without any implications; it may be an indication that the travails of finance capitalism are not over. GLOBAL capitalism is in a phase in which it must deal with the fruits of the overextension during the previous boom, and there is no doubt that this is going to be painful. The financial crisis in the United States and some other developed countries...

Food prices have hit a 10-year-high as supply shortages due to poor monsoon and floods in some parts finally bit hard, forcing a worried government to announce a step-up in imports and strengthening expectations of RBI tightening policy to stop a breakout of inflation in the wider economy. Prices of potato, other vegetables and pulses drove inflation to 19.95% in the year to December 5, surging from 19% in the...