-Live Mint The International Monetary fund (IMF) has warned India against Licensing corporate entities to step into the business of commercial banking, saying the risks associated with such a move potentially outweigh the benefits of creating more banks. IMF’s Financial System Stability Assessment Update said it would be prudent for India to first put in place and gain sufficient experience in implementing a comprehensive framework for the purpose before considering the entry...

-Reuters New York: WalMart Stores Inc’s Mexican affiliate routinely used bribes to open stores in desirable locations, according to a New York Times investigation published Monday, which cites 19 instances of the retail giant paying off local officials. The Times first reported in April that Walmart had intentionally stifled an internal probe into bribery at its Mexican affiliate Walmex. Late last month, Mexico’s anti-corruption body said it found no irregularities in the...

-The Hindu In a major boost to the country’s private vaccine manufacturing pharmaceutical companies, the World Health Organisation (WHO) has said that India’s national regulatory authority — Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO) — and its affiliated institutions meet the prescribed international standards. India is a major vaccine producer with 12 major vaccine manufacturing facilities. These vaccines are used for the national and international market, reaching nearly 150 countries. Every second child...

-Oxfam Blog As Oxfam’s two week online debate on the future of agriculture gets under way, John Ambler of Oxfam America imagines how it could all turn out right in the end. It is now 2050.  Globally, we are 9 billion strong.  Only 20% of us are directly involved in agriculture, and poor country economies have diversified.  Yet we all have enough food.  Technological innovation has played its part, but increased production...

-Frontline Farmers protest against the Central clearance for coal bed methane exploration in Mannargudi, Tamil Nadu, as they fear it will devastate agriculture in Tiruvarur and Thanjavur districts.  THE woes of the delta farmers of Tamil Nadu are far from over. While the Cauvery tangle continues unresolved, they fear the proposed multi-crore project for commercial exploration and exploitation of coal bed methane (CBM) in the Mannargudi block of Tiruvarur district will prove...