-AP   Bangladesh, Ethiopia, Nepal and some of the world’s other poorest countries helped lead the way over the past year as U.N. member states began meeting their unprecedented pledge of more than $40 billion for maternal and child health, a new study of the spending says. The spending report is being released Tuesday at a high-level event chaired by U.N. Secretary-General Mr. Ki-moon, who has made raising money for the health of...

Anna Hazare's campaign may lead to a new Lokpal Bill, but it has legitimised middle-class vigilantism and other kinds of civil society mobilisation. NOW that Anna Hazare has declared victory, it is time to take stock of one of the most powerful recent mobilisations of people in India, focussed on influencing policy or lawmaking processes. The victory, however, is largely symbolic. The original demand of the movement, carefully built around Hazare's...

The $12 billion Posco investment in India was supposed to be the biggest FDI project in the country. After six years that still remains on paper Horangineun jugeumyeon gajugeul namgigo, Sarameun jugeumyun ireumeul namginda (When tigers die, they leave behind leather. When people die, they leave their names behind) —Old Korean Proverb The news flash from Press Trust of India came on July 10, 2011. Posco, the $32 billion South Korean steel giant had decided to...

Last week, the census commissioner released the second round of data, which showed that the move towards towns and cities received a fresh impetus in the decade ended 2011, as a result of which the country achieved a laudable milestone: a little under one in three Indians now lives in areas classified as urban, reversing a lull apparent in the previous two decades. This is something to be welcomed as in...

Some of that legendary ‘Banarasi pan' could have begun its journey from Gujjari Mohanty's vineyard in Govindpur, Orissa. “I've sold our leaves in Benares [Varanasi] myself,” says her son Sanatan. As have many of their neighbours. “Our leaves are high-quality and greatly valued.” The betel leaf, though, is not just about pan. It is also valued for medicinal qualities as a digestive, for the antiseptic nature of its oil, and...