India & World Updates: 27.6.09
June 22, 2009 : India to sign labour agreement with Denmark
June 22, 2009 : ISSA sets up office in Delhi
June 25, 2009 : India has 25% of world’s highest paid expats
June 26, 2009 : Gandhi statue unveiled in Leicester amid tight security
June 27, 2009 : Pakistan SC rejects Indian prisoner Sarabjit’s mercy petition.
June 20, 2009 The safest countries in the world – New Zealand , India on Bottom
The 2009 Global Peace Index ranks New Zealand as the safest country to live in. The survey gives New Zealand a very low score on the likelihood of violence and violent crimes. Its also scores very low on hostility to foreigners.Scandivanian countries top the list. The list has ranked 144 countries.
Our nations is on number 122.
Rank 1 : Newzealand
Rank 2: Denmark & Norway
Rank 4: Iceland
Rank 5: Austria
Rank 6 : Sweden
Rank 7 : Japan (Highest ranked Asian Country)
Rank 8 : Cananda (only north american country to hold a rank in top 10)
Rank 9 : Finland
Rank 10: Slovenia
Rank 16 : Qatar
Rank 21 : Oman (Oman & Qatar are highest ranked Arab Countries)
Rank 19 : Australia
Rank 18 : Switzwrland
Rank 20 : Chilie
Some Other Ranking Asian Countries:
Bhutan Rank 40: Bhutan is the highest ranking South Asian country. Bhutan coined the concept of gross national happiness does well on human rights and boasts of low levels of violent crimes.
China : Rank 74: The world’s most populous nation, China is ranked at 74th by the index. While the Communist nation scores low on political rights and human rights, its does well on the development indicators and material well being.
Nepal : Rank 77
Nepal went through political turmoil last year with the monarchy being abolished and an elected Communist government taking over. The political instability in the country continued following the hung Parliament. However, Nepal’s human development indicators have improved vastly in the last three years.
India : 122
While the survey gave an encouraging 9.58 out of 10 to India for its electoral process, which provided many options and freedom to voters to exercise their franchise, it ranked the country at a disappointing 3.4 out of 10 in terms of the level of corruption prevalent.
India has stepped into actual funding of a poverty alleviation project in China,the first-ever India funded project. It is a farmers’ training and information centre established in the relatively backward province of Ningxia. It was inaugurated by Nirupama Rao, Indian ambassador in China, and Wang Zhengwei, chairman of the Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, in Liangtian township on Saturday. The NHAR is jointly funding the project with the Indian government.
There is another project in China funded by India, which is an Indian style Buddhist temple close to the historic While Horse temple in Luoyang in Henan province. But this is the first opportunity for both Chinese and Indian officials to share experiences on poverty eradication.
June 22, 2009: Developing countries’ GDP to slow to 1.2%: World Bank
The World Bank has estimated economic growth in developing countries of 1.2% this year (without China and India, output would shrink 1.6%. ) China’s economy was forecast to expand 7.2% in 2009 and 7.7% in 2010, while India’s forecast was for 5.1% followed by 8.0%. The latest World Bank forecasts on gross domestic product (GDP) — a measure of goods and services output in a country — came in a report, “Global Development Finance 2009: Charting a Global Recovery. This report was published in co incidence with a three-day Annual Bank Conference on Development Economics
June 22, 2009 India to sign labour agreement with Denmark
India will sign a labour agreement with Denmark as part of the Governments effort to explore employment opportunities in European countries for skilled and semi-skilled Indian workers. Union Minister of Overseas Indian Affairs Vayalar Ravi has said that the Indian Government was planning to sign such agreements with other European countries to boost the employment opportunities for skilled and semi-skilled workers in the country.
June 22, 2009 ISSA sets up office in Delhi
Sub-Regional Liaison Office for the International Social Security Association (ISSA) South Asia opened in New Delhi.
About ISSA : Founded in 1927, the International Social Security Association is a global organisation whose members are from national social security administrations and agencies of different countries throughout the world. ISSAs main office is located at the International Labour Organisation (ILO) headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland.
The office in Delhi will cover member organisations from Bhutan, Iran, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka, apart from India. The ESI Corporation (ESIC) has been a member of the ISSA since the early 60s. ISSA has active members in 144 countries and is at present running nearly 344 social security schemes.
June 25, 2009 : India has 25% of world’s highest paid expats
Asian countries are home to some of the wealthiest expatriates in the world and about 25 per cent of the highest paid foreign assignees’ prefer to live in India, as per a report named 2009 Expat Explorer Survey by HSBC Bank International.
The highest proportion of expats earning more than $250,000 are in Hong Kong (27 per cent), Japan (26 per cent) and India (25 per cent) compared with a global average of 16 per cent.
June 26, 2009 : Gandhi statue unveiled in Leicester amid tight security
A large statue of Mahatma Gandhi was unveiled in Leicester by the British home minister amid tight security after internet protesters warned it could be defaced.
June 26, 2009 : World Bank approves credit of $100 million for Madhya Pradesh
The World Bank has approved a 100 million dollar International Development Association(IDA) credit to India, designed to address rural poverty in Madhya Pradesh.
Madhya Pradesh had launched Madhya Pradesh District Poverty Initiatives Project (MPDPIP) which was approved by the World Bank in 2000, which covered over 2,900 villages spread across 14 districts. It has helped organise some 325,000 poor rural households into over 52,000 Common Interest Groups (CIGs), providing them with financial and technical assistance. As per World Bank, this project has achieved some very impressive results.
This project MDPPIP-II is designed to empower the poor by organising them into Self Help Groups (SHGs) and facilitate their federation into cluster level organisations, to enable them to access higher value markets, formal financial intermediaries, among other things. It will develop the capacity of SHGs to start or enhance their livelihoods activities and strengthen their business operations through producer based federations, companies and cooperatives.
June 27, 2009 : Pakistan SC rejects Indian prisoner Sarabjit’s mercy petition.
The fate of Indian prisoner Sarabjit Singh hung by a slender thread as Pakistan’s Supreme Court on Wednesday dismissed his review petition challenging the death sentence handed out to him in 1991, leaving him at the mercy of a presidential pardon by Asif Ali Zardari. Sarabjit is being convicted for alleged involvement in four bomb blasts in Lahore in 1990 that killed 14 people in Pakistan by an anti-terrorism court in 1991.
July 4, 2009: El Nino Modoki
Modoki is a Japanese term which means “same thing, but different” . El Niño Modoki is a new type of El nino which forms in the Central Pacific. (normal el Nino forms in Eastern Pacific). Warming in the Central Pacific is associated with a higher storm frequency and a greater potential for making landfall along the Gulf coast and the coast of Central America. Normally, El Niño results in diminished hurricanes in the Atlantic, but this new type is resulting in a greater number of hurricanes with greater frequency and more potential to make landfall. (Science Daily)
