Tuesday, September 8, 1998
NGOs call for ending investment talks
Over 40 national and international non-governmental groups, who were at the second ministerial meeting of the World Trade Organisation in Geneva, in May 1998, have joined in calling for an end to the investment talks at the Organisation for the Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and have rejected proposals to move the talks to the WTO.
Change in course
The Congress Party's Panchmarhi session has confirmed the deeply ambivalent attitude of party members towards economic reforms. Several of them had attributed their defeat at the hustings to the reform programme. The economic agenda to be espoused for the November state elections will therefore be a reversal to the tried and tested `garibi hatao' platform.
Demographic gain
The United Nations Population Fund's report on The State of World Population, 1998 makes an interesting point about demographic transition. As high mortality and fertility rates fall, there is a temporary bulge in the proportion of the population of working age. This would mean that while fewer children are being born currently, the effect of earlier high birth rates will result in the number of working people increasing.
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