-The Hindu     In spite of the rosy picture painted by the World Bank, the prospect of eliminating extreme poverty remains distant In a protracted period of gloom and persistent recession with feeble signs of recovery in a large part of the developed world, the World Bank, Brookings Institution and others can be forgiven for their euphoria over the accomplishment of a key Millennium Development Goal (MDG) - of halving extreme poverty in...

-The Hindustan Times Kolkata: Probing the infamous Saradha scam for Bengal's investigating agencies is like searching for the man who stole overcoats in Nikolai Gogol's The Overcoat. It is a mammoth task made more difficult due to the involvement of political bigwigs. The enormity of the challenge is manifold. First, the web of financial irregularities amounting to thousands of crores of rupees. Second, the involvement of politicians in the scam and third,...

-Live Mint A SWOT analysis of 24 companies that are drawing up plans for their entry into banking Mumbai: The deadline for applying for a banking licence expires on 1 July. At least two dozen companies, both in the private and public sectors, are busy drawing up plans for their entry into banking, being opened up again a decade after the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) allowed the entry of two...

-The United Nations United Nations independent experts today called on countries to ensure the post-2015 development agenda focuses on equality, social protection and accountability, noting that one billion people around the world are still living in poverty. "The rise of inequality has severely undermined the achievements of the Millennium Development Goals, or MDGs," the independent experts said in their message to Member States which will meet this week in New York to...

-Frontline Corruption tends to be greater in periods when there is a state-engineered redistribution of wealth in favour of a few at the explicit or implicit expense of the many. Liberalisation is one such period. IT cannot be verified and may not be true. But, the view that the record of graft and corruption during the two-term, nine-year rule of the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) is the worst in India's post-Independence...