On June 12, Ravi Shankar Ratnam helped Ram Krishna Yadav resume eating after Yadav had fasted for a week. This wouldn’t have made the headlines of every Indian newspaper the next morning if it hadn’t been for the fact that both men had achieved a state of demi-divinity through the tried-and-tested process of Hindu name-inflation. Ram Krishna Yadav became Swami Ramdev when he took sanyas and after his extraordinary success...
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New Action Programme, and New Name for the Poorest by Jacques N. Couvas
A new 10-year blueprint for assisting the poorest countries on the planet to join the league of the more fortunate ones was approved Friday at the closing of the Fourth U.N. Conference on the Least Developed Countries (LDC-IV) held May 9- 13 here. The Istanbul Programme for Action, a 50-page plan negotiated for a week by heads of state and diplomats from both least developed and economically developed states, contemplates the...
More »UN summit adopts 10-year plan to help lift developing countries out of poverty
Participants at a United Nations summit today outlined a 10-year plan to support the world’s most vulnerable countries overcome poverty, calling on the private sector to play a greater role in the fight, urging wealthy nations to step up their aid commitments and demanding the elimination of many trade barriers. The Istanbul Programme of Action to spur development and economic growth was made public at the end of the Fourth UN...
More »CWG scam: CBI arrests former Games chief Suresh Kalmadi
The Central Bureau of Investigation on Monday arrested former head of the Commonwealth Games Organising Committee, Suresh Kalmadi, in connection with irregularities in the contract for the Queen's Baton Relay, according to television channels. Earlier, Suresh Kalmadi was questioned by the CBI over alleged irregularities in the conduct of Queen's Baton Relay (QBR) held in London in 2009. The CBI first questioned Kalmadi on January 5. The agency had asked Kalmadi, sacked as...
More »Bangladesh: crisis of the Grameen Bank by Haroon Habib
U.S. support for Muhammad Yunus is so strong that Dhaka may find a negotiated settlement to protect the Nobel Laureate's image and the independence of the Grameen Bank. Nobel Laureate Muhammad Yunus's three-decades-long journey with microfinance was laborious. But he most certainly did not encounter a crisis like the one he is facing now. It was only in December 2010 that the Bangladeshi — who shared the Nobel Peace Prize with...
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