"The Indian government is seeking to provide incentives for investors in solar energy devices to ensure enough capacity is set up to generate up to 3 percent of the nation's electricity. The challenge is not how to harness it, but how to find the land, the space and the right technology to do so cost effectively. The Solar Mission aims to get costs down to levels acceptable by grid consumers by 2022 and on par with coal-fired thermal plants by 2030.

The goals are splendid; but the catch is the miserable efficiency levels of extant technologies. There is yet no device, whether solar thermal or photovoltaic, that can generate electricity from sunlight for the grid cheaply. Indeed, the latest bids indicate costs five to six times that of coal. Clearly this is a gap that is still unacceptably wide, one that can only be narrowed by advances in science or in the technology of manufacturing the generating equipment."

"Vehicle sales in PRC jumped 46.2 percent in 2009. This is an astonishing statistic. Yet under normal circumstances, would it have occurred? During 2009, China took the one off step of introducing a massive fiscal stimulus plan into the economy, and arranged for banks to make cheap loans available.

Yet what should have been a planned, orderly program of fiscal initiatives to provide long term, sustainable growth appears to have turned into a spending spree of unimaginable proportions. China, in many ways, has spent money that would have better been allocated to sustained development projects such as education, high tech industries, and infrastructure development."

"The launch of an advanced mobile-based information system in Bhutan will boost local farmers' income, by helping them find the right place to sell their farm produce. Providing access to information in four languages, it reads out to the caller a range of prices.

Farmers can be assured of finding the right place to sell their farm produce, as this facility enables them to keep abreast of the latest market prices for farm produces like potatoes. A farmer can be given up to date market prices for their produce, putting them in a much better position to make arrangements with middlemen, and to control the marketing of his products."

"An Internet search reveals an increasing number of websites containing 'Kidney for sale' advertisements in the Indonesian language. Officials said the scale of illegal organ trafficking in Indonesia was not known, but the Internet phenomenon had raised concerns about the scourge. Indonesia's new Health Law, passed in October 2009, bans organ trading, with offenders facing up to 10 years in prison or a fine of one billion rupiah if found guilty.

According to the World Health Organization, the shortage of organs is a global problem, with potential recipients traveling outside their home country to obtain organs through sometimes illegal commercial transactions. Only 10 percent of the estimated need was met in 2005. As a result, the illegal kidney trade has increased tremendously over the past few years, although the extent of illegal kidney transplants is unknown."

"A landless laborer died on Christmas day after going without food for five days. Neither he nor his wife, who was a job card holder under the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme, knew they could demand work or avail of unemployment benefits as a right. It was a death that could have been avoided.

The National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS) promises 100 days of work every year to one adult member of every rural household, at a minimum wage. Launched in 2005, it has come under criticism for delayed wage payments, corruption, non-issuance of job cards and use of funds for non-permissible activities."

"Asian economic recovery remains fragile and careful policy adjustments, along with increased cooperation between countries, will be needed to sustain growth and cushion the region against future shocks, a study by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) says. The study, titled "Policy Changes for Asia after the Global Recession: Impact of the Global Economy and Policy Implications," noted that growth in the region is set to accelerate this year as the global economy begins recovery.

But it warns that recovery in Asia is still dependent on policy support from developed economies, notably from the regionfs largest market, the United States. Surging capital inflows can cause volatility in exchange rates and domestic liquidity, posing a risk to emerging economies in the region, the study said. It is imperative for the region to bring growth back to its higher trajectory to cover the lost ground on poverty reduction, and to support global recovery."

"There is no longer any reason to delay the disbursement of the budget in Indonesia, as President Yudhoyono asserted early last week when presenting thousands of 2010 budget spending warrants worth Rp 1,047 trillion ($110 billion) to ministers, heads of state institutions and provincial governors in Jakarta. The budget authorization or warrants are a breakthrough in the process of budget disbursement, especially for the investment budget, which in the past suffered the longest delays.

The 2009 fiscal year, which ended last month, still left behind Rp 38 trillion ($3.8 billion) or more than 20 percent of the investment budget for that year unspent due to various problems related to inadequate public budget management and institutional spending ability. But the unrealized investment budget was smaller than previous years."

"Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) to the Philippines surged a year after the Lehman Brothers collapse sent investors packing for safe havens. In a statement, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) said it registered net FDI inflows of $59 million in October, or 195.2 percent higher than the net outflows of $62 million in the same month of 2008.

The October figure led net FDI inflows to hit $1.3 billion in the first 10 months of 2009, or 17.9 percent higher than the $1.126 billion in the same period of 2008. This is $200 million short of the BSP forecast of $1.5 billion for 2009. For 2010, the central bank expects inflows of $1.8 billion."

"The establishment of a modern garbage disposal or management system for Dhaka city, with recycling and reuse of the garbage at its core, has become imperative to cope with the future pressure to be created from allowing garbage to accumulate in the traditional manner. It was heartening to note that the Dhaka City Corporation (DCC) sometime ago made an agreement with the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) to set up a modern garbage recycling plant for Dhaka city.

Under this project, the garbage of the city would be carried swiftly beyond the metropolitan areas to well-supervised sites. But the project, like many other ambitious and incomplete projects, is getting stalled by bureaucracy and vested interest groups who have a stake in maintaining the present mode of garbage disposal. Therefore, the challenge for the government is to overcome these hurdles and introduce the modern system of garbage management as early as possible."

"PRC plans to restructure shanty towns in the country and clear up idle land to increase land supply, in the latest efforts to add more affordable housing for low-income families, government officials said. The move is part of the government's real estate package to curb soaring property prices and crack down on speculation.

Currently, there are more than 10 million families living in shanty towns in the country. To finance this transformation, the Ministry of Finance will also offer a number of favorable policies, such as the exemption of land use fees, and stamp tax and contract tax, according to the Ministry of Finance."

"The resistance toward any move by farmers to improve their lives is evidence in two cases: cultivation of bio-fuels, and of millets for brewing. One of the arguments used for refusing farmers the freedom to produce bio-fuel was that the production of bio-diesel could cause an edible oil crunch. In fact, there is no conflict between fuel needs and edible oil needs. It is remarkable that farmers were not allowed to produce bio-fuel, even in a country like India, which imports half its requirements of edible oil and oilseeds.

The universal shift toward finer grains such as wheat and paddy has resulted in falling prices of millets. The production of the millets has become patently unviable and uneconomic. With the demand for millets as a food item on the decline, some enterprising farmers are trying to use them to brew alcoholic drinks. As with bio-fuels, a whole community of farmer-baiting NGOs has cropped up, protesting against the use of millets for brewing. They have once again created a bogey of conflict between foodgrains, on the one hand, and brewing, on the other."

Please share this e-newsline with others interested in the development of Asia-Pacific.

For questions, comments, complaints please visit our online contact form

To change your email address or to unsubscribe from ADBI e-newsline please visit:
http://www.adbi.org/e-newsline/subscribe.php

Sign-up for ADBI's free e-notification service to ensure you receive an e-mail when we post new publications and opportunities.

The stories and links selected and the views expressed in e-Newsline are those of the authors and editors and do not necessarily reflect the views or policies of the ADB Institute. The Institute does not endorse them and accepts no responsibility whatsoever for any consequences of their use. Original name usage is retained in quoted articles, although it may not necessarily follow ADB naming conventions.