UK Prime Minister David Cameron may scale down the &PoUnd;250 million British aid given to India annually, saying wealthy local residents could do more to help their poor countrymen. Cameron is under pressure to reduce foreign assistance to India. International development secretary Andrew Mitchell has signalled that the “&PoUnd;250 million of public money spent annually on nuclear-armed India could be scaled back”. He said the rich NRI population of Britain could do more...

“When I told a government official that Pesa allows us to determine our policy on liquor trade in the village, he shot back, ‘Are you trying to teach me the law? If you are so knowledgeable about the law, why are you living here in your village in the forest? Why don’t you go and speak in the Orissa assembly?’” Fulsingh Naik, resident of Mandibisi (Rayagada, West Orissa), December 2009, recounting...

Normal life has been disrupted in many parts of India after the country's main opposition parties began a 12-hour strike to protest against the increase in prices of fuel. West Bengal, Kerala and Bihar states along with Mumbai were worst affected. Businesses were shut, schools and colleges closed and public transport thin in the affected states. The government has raised fuel prices - a move that will add nearly one percentage point to...

In most organisations, those who are the biggest funders are also the ones with the biggest say in their running. In the case of the World Health Organisation (WHO), on the face of it, there seem to be two entities making the biggest voluntary contributions, the US government and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. But a closer look at the list of voluntary contributors suggests that the Gates Foundation...

The Indian government has opted to scrap its subsidy of petrol prices in an effort to cut its budget deficit. Ministers also voted to raise the price of other fuels, including diesel and kerosene gas in an effort to raise money. India's fiscal deficit is forecast to hit 5.5% of GDP by 2010-11. But the move is likely to be politically unpopular, and there are concerns that higher fuel prices will...