-Outlook Bali: Dismissing the suggestion that India was insisting on food security because of the ensuing general elections at home, Commerce and Industry Minister Anand Sharma today said New Delhi was only pursing an old proposal and stressed that "no agreement" would be better than a bad one. The Minister, at a packed press conference, made it clear that New Delhi was not prepared for any compromise on the food security issue,...

-Live Mint Anand Sharma urges updating of rules under agriculture deal to fix ‘inherent flaws', help developing countries New Delhi: India on Monday rejected the World Trade Organization's (WTO) offer on food security rules in its present form ahead of the biannual ministerial conference of the multilateral trade body beginning Tuesday in Bali, further hardening India's position on the issue. The present draft text prepared in Geneva provides developing countries temporary relief...

-The United Nations A United Nations report released today projects that by the end of the year, 40 per cent of the world's population - 2.7 billion people - will be online, as mobile broadband has become the fastest growing segment of the global information and communication technology (ICT) market. The annual report of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) also estimates that by the end of 2013, there will be some 6.8...

-The Times of India   NEW DELHI: Nobel laureate Amartya Sen on Sunday backed Bihar's growth strategy, arguing that growth was not independent of social transformation. "What is needed is an integrated approach for development and growth," Sen said at a book release event. Citing Japan's model, which was later adopted by South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Singapore, the noted economist suggested that without education and proper health facilities, it was difficult...

-The Telegraph Kolkata: Two books by celebrated economists have set the stage for an absorbing growth battle. Columbia University professor Jagdish Bhagwati and Nobel laureate Amartya Sen want the same end - a better India - but the means they prescribe sound different. If Bhagwati prescribes economic growth led by the markets and overseen and encouraged by liberal state policies, Sen believes growth cannot be an end in itself without government effort to...