-The Business Standard World Bank-IMF study, however, says pace of reduction in absolute poverty has been substantial; report stresses skills training for youth India was home to about a third of the world's poor in 2011, according to a progress report on various social indicators from the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF), issued on Wednesday. In other words, the highest number of the poor lived in India in...

-Down to Earth The number should be reduced from the current 169 targets A development expert, Morten Jerven, has estimated that the world might end up spending close to $250 billion just to monitor UN development goals for 2030. In a report, Jerven proposes that governments should cut down the number of targets from the current 169 to avoid over-spending. According to Reuters, world leaders will set new sustainable development objectives-such as improving...

-The Business Standard WTO reconvenes to re-examine issue of agriculture subsidies, numbers alone suggest that India has a strong case for declining to sign WTO's TFA The World Trade Organisation (WTO) is reconvening in the last week of September to examine the issue of agricultural subsidies against the backdrop of India's refusal to become a signatory to the trade facilitation agreement (TFA) at Bali. Since then, a lot of water has flowed...

-The United Nations If all women in poor countries completed primary education, child mortality would drop by one-sixth saving almost one million lives, the United Nations educational agency today reported highlighting the links between schooling and achieving a new set of sustainable development targets. "The benefits of education permeate all walks of life right from the moment of birth," said Irina Bokova, Director-General of the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO)...

-Down to Earth   The post-MDGs target seems impossible as chronic poverty sets in. Now, more poor people are becoming chronically poor compared to earlier times. The subject needs a different debate and design The State of Food Insecurity in the World report is an annual state of affairs report published by the FAO, the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) and the UN World Food Programme. The timing of the report is...