What’s in a name, the bard had asked many centuries ago, and argued that a rose will smell as sweet if called by any other name.
The time has come to twist this famous Shakespearean quote in the context of India’s biggest diplomatic spectacle that is due to unravel ten days from now and ask this question: What’s in a dress?
Ask Prime Minister Narendra Modi and he will give the answer: a lot.
An instance of this will be seen soon when India hosts the 3rd India-Africa Forum Summit in New Delhi (26-29 October). The Modi government is all set to unleash a unique sartorial diplomacy.
In this unusual Read More
In the last decade, the role of the private sector in sustainable development has become one of the most prominent themes in the development framework. In the Busan Partnership for Effective Development Cooperation 2011 and other meetings (the Rio+20 Conference on Sustainable Development in 2012, Global Partnership on Effective Development Co-operation (GPEDC) and United Nations discussions on a new global framework for sustainable development post-2015) governments recognized the central role that the private sector has been playing and needs to play in economic development and poverty reduction in the low income countries of Africa and Asia. The private sector can be either the target of development cooperation or a Read More
In the largest-ever turnout of African leaders in India, at least 41 leaders — including South African President Jacob Zuma, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe and Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari — have confirmed their presence in New Delhi for the India-Africa Forum summit on October 29-30, top government sources told The Indian Express.
“Of the 54 African countries, we are expecting participation from all of them which will include presence of leaders and ministers from 52 of them,” a source said. This makes it the highest attendance, surpassing China, US and Japan which have held African leaders’ summits in the past. While China ensured attendance Read More
The European Union has offered Turkey a possible three billion euros ($3.41bn) in aid and the prospect of easier travel visas and “re-energised” talks on joining the bloc in return for its help stemming the flow of refugees to Europe.
EU leaders at a summit in Brussels said early on Friday that they agreed on an “action plan” with Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan to cooperate on improving the lives of two million Syrian refugees in Turkey and encouraging them to stay put.
They also agreed to coordinate border controls to slow the influx of refugees crossing Turkey from Asia.
Already hosting more than two million Syrians, Turkey has become a launching point Read More
These are trying times for Brazil and South Africa, the southern members of the BRICS grouping of emerging nations that also include China, Russia and India. After years of robust growth their economies are in the doldrums, and their governments lack latitude in the options to revive them. It is not only the erosion of macro-level gains that should concern policy makers in Brasilia and Pretoria; increasingly they also need to worry about the backlash of citizenries, particularly the new, vulnerable middle classes, against the abruptness with which the brakes have been put on the wheels of progress.
Less than a decade ago these commodity-rich economies raced ahead with seemingly Read More
Despite International Criminal Court (ICC) declaring Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir, one of the invitees at the high-profile India-Africa Summit, a “war criminal” and having issued two warrants, India will go ahead and host him during the upcoming event from October 26 here as it is under no obligation to arrest him.
Bashir, who is wanted by the ICC for alleged genocide and war crimes in Darfur conflict and against whom two arrest warrants were issued in 2009 and 2010, is among the 54 heads of state in Africa invited for the third India-Africa Summit (IAFS). Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s special envoy and Minister of State for External Affairs V K Read More
Dr Akinwumi Adesina, President of the African Development Bank (AfDB), has announced that the Bank would nearly triple its annual climate financing to reach $5 billion annually by 2020.
AfDB’s climate spending would increase to 40 per cent of its total new investments by the targeted date.
“Climate change is both an urgent threat and a unique opportunity,” Dr Adesina said in the Climate Finance Ministerial Meeting co-hosted by Peru and France in Lima as part of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) annual conference.
AfDB, established in 1964 and headquartered in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire, is owned by the 54 African countries and 26 non-African countries, aimed to spur Read More
When in doubt, lend more. The modus operandi that has inspired the World Bank since its creation in 1944 is still in operation. Jim Yong Kim, who took over as president in 2012, has had a torrid time trying to impose his management ideas on the perennially fractious and fractured organisation. Now he is asking the bank’s shareholder countries for an increase in its capital base.
He is unlikely to get his way soon. The US Congress in particular is no fan of doling out cash to multilateral agencies. Yet Read More
A host of the world’s top development banks announced substantial increases in financing for developing countries to reduce climate-warming emissions and adapt to the consequences of climate change, as top finance and development officials met from 9-11 October in Lima, Peru.
The World Bank Group has pledged to boost its climate finance offering from 21 percent up to 28 percent by 2020, with the support of its 188 member countries. This translates into a projected increase of funding from US$10.3 billion in 2020 to US$16 billion, according to the Bank’s press release.
The Bank also promised to continue current levels of leveraging co-financing for climate projects with governments and the Read More
It’s almost 15 years since Goldman Sachs’ then chief economist, Jim O’Neill, coined the term ‘BRIC.’ The idea was that four countries (Brazil, Russia, India and China) were going to be the growth drivers for the 20th century. The idea was catchy, convincing and caught on. Soon, there were more acronyms and groups of countries doing the rounds: MINT and Next 11 were two that spring to mind, but probably none were as notorious as the BRICs.
As of 2015, the BRICs aren’t nearly as popular with future gazers as they once were. True, China did experience several years of double-digit growth after the acronym was invented but you didn’t Read More