The World Bank has agreed to loan India $1bn (£600m) over the next five years to clean up the Ganges, one of the most polluted rivers in the world. The 2,500km (1,500 mile) river has been badly polluted by industrial chemicals, farm pesticides and other sewage. Speaking in Delhi, World Bank chief Robert Zoellick said the clean up would target the entire river network. Plans involve building sewage treatment plants, revamping...

A financial crisis in Dubai will hurt remittances to India and reduce job opportunities for citizens of the south Asian nation, said Thomas Issac, finance minister of the southern state of Kerala. About 4.5 million Indians live and work in the Gulf region and remit more than $10 billion annually, according to the Ministry of External Affairs annual report for the year ended March 31, 2009. Remittances from the Middle...

India, a traditional rice exporter, will import the grain for the first time in 20 years to meet a projected shortfall of the crop hit by drought and floods, the government said on Wednesday. “We started rice season, that is from October 2009, with almost six million tonnes of surplus ... Still there is a projection that there is some shortfall of Kharif crops. So to make it up, we...

An ambitious human resource development ministry proposal aimed at ending persistent gaps between allocated and needed funds that plague the midday meal scheme has been rejected by a key finance panel. The Centre’s expenditure finance committee (EFC) has dumped the ministry proposal to tie costs of the meal scheme to fluctuating commodity prices through a special pricing index, The Telegraph has learnt. The EFC’s approval is mandatory for central proposals with...

Rapid urbanization is placing significant stress on the budgets of India's local governments and more must be done to improve their financial status to enable them to fund infrastructure projects and delivery of essential services. To address the issue, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) has agreed to a request from the Government of India to support a study to assess the state of India's local government finances and identify key...