CITIES MAKE one simple promise to newcomers: Sacrifice yourself to me and your children shall prosper. This promise drew Ahmed Raza, a small-time wrestler from an Uttar Pradesh village and millions like him to the capital of newly-independent India. Raza kept his part of the bargain, yet half a century later, his daughter was pushed out of the city her father helped build, the only home she has known. “I...

People of dalit communities in the Gadarwara sub-division of district Narsinghpur in Madhya Pradesh are on the brink of starvation as they are facing harassment, economic sanctions and social boycott because they have refused to remove animal carcasses. A fact finding team of civil society organisations says that dalits at many places have been ‘imprisoned’ in their own houses as all entry and exit points have been blocked by the...

With international talks on climate change starting next week in Copenhagen, India staked out its early position on Thursday by announcing that it would slow the growth of the nation’s greenhouse gas emissions by 2020, while also leaving open the possibility of taking bolder steps if an “equitable” deal can be reached during the negotiations. The Indian initiative, presented in Parliament by the country’s top environmental official, means that India has...

Indian policymakers are debating doing away with the mandatory rating of financial instruments in the long-term, among a set of measures aimed at strengthening the regulatory and disclosures regime for credit ratings. The expert group, set up by the High Level Coordination Committee on Financial Markets (HLCCFM), has made specific recommendations on improving and disclosing the way credit rating agencies rate financial instruments, and has sought debate on the very...

The United Nations predicted today that the world economy would bounce back next year with a global growth rate of 2.4 percent, but warned of a risk of a double-dip recession if the wrong policies are implemented. “We’re not out of the woods yet,” said Rob Vos, Director of Development Policy and Analysis from the Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA), ahead of the launch next month of the...