"India's economy is taking a big gamble on growth. Rising inflation and the largest fiscal deficit for 20 years are being risked to power the economy to double-digit growth. Unlike China, India has an economy driven mainly by demand from its 1.2 billion people rather than exports. As US consumers reduce borrowings and rebuild savings, India has emerged as a source of demand with higher spending on infrastructure, measures for its rural population and a growing middle class.

But much remains at stake. In spite of India's rising status as a well-balanced economy with a strong internal motor, its destiny as an economic powerhouse is not assured. For durable growth, say economists, it has to show strong fiscal management and the will to narrow the gap between plans and implementation. With a large rural population, it also needs to raise agricultural output."

"China has wasted a great deal of money in purchasing goods and products with little long-term wealth creation. This has largely been at the expense of rather more worthy and longer-term investments. This begins to hit home when one considers the state of financing for the development of China's railway network. Spending on rail construction reached $88 billion in 2009.

China's banks have been squeezed by having to increase their debt financing to two-thirds of the total cost for rail projects, yet at the same time having to increase the amount of liquid capital reserves held against debt. The amount of stimulus package that went into rail is also looking inadequate to keep up with the government's plans. A further investment of some $308 billion is required to complete the current 33,000 kilometers of track still under construction."

"Lack of employment opportunities are swelling poor populations in South-east Asia's urban centers. Studies point to a trend of unusual reverse migration in times of economic crisis. In Thailand, during the Asian financial crisis of 1997, some 188,000 workers returned to rural areas, with the highest return migration rates observed in the depressed northeast region of the country. Shifts in employment from the non-farm to the farm sector were also seen in Indonesia and Korea.

This has not been the case in Manila which has one of the fastest growing and dense urban concentrations in the Asia-Pacific region. The urban poor people had nothing to go back to in the province, which is why they came to urban areas in the first place. Aside from scavenging for garbage and vending, the urban poor usually subsist on other informal jobs driving 'pedicabs' and tricycles, buying and selling retail goods, or working contractually in construction sites. Since they mostly work in the informal sector, they cannot avail themselves of government safety nets."

"Bits of gray land sprout shyly from the Brahmaputa-Jamuna River. The cracked mud seems to understand that when the monsoon season hits, it will become completely submerged. Home to at least 3.5 million people, these few hundred chars, or tiny islands, are located seven hours north of the country's capital Dhaka. They constitute one of the most remote and vulnerable regions in Bangladesh, considered the nation most susceptible to climate change's impacts. People in these communities lack electricity, media and access to any commercial market.

Char-dwellers survive the best they can. They migrate from char to char up to 40 to 50 times in a given life (the average life expectancy here is late-40s), taking their collapsible, tin houses along with them. But most people just wait for relief. Despite the challenges of living on chars, no governmental program exists to relocate the few million char-dwellers."

"The declining water levels in major rivers Brahmaputra and Teesta much ahead of the dry season is lowering the underground water levels and also affecting cultivation in India's north east and Bangladesh. Environmentalists fear negative changes in overall climate will make the region more prone to calamities.

The Brahmaputra has now the lowest water flow in some narrower channels that caused emergence of hundreds of shoals hampering navigability throughout its courses both in the up-stream and downstream. On the other hand, the Teesta has dried up almost completely throughout its courses in Bangladesh. The drying up of these great rivers has caused abnormal lowering of the underground water levels and also seriously affected traditional irrigation."

"Asia-Pacific central banks are increasingly taking their cue from China as post-crisis economic growth accelerates, underlining a shift in power away from the United States, analysts say. While the Federal Reserve has long dictated regional efforts to promote or crimp growth, the People's Bank of China is exerting more sway in the crisis aftermath as China's economic might soars and Asian inflation ticks up.

China's central bank once took its cue from the Fed, and the country's exchange rate policy remains controversially tied to the US dollar. But the bank now operates far more independently. However, while the Chinese bank's influence is growing, it will need greater openness and independence before it can outstrip the global clout of both the Fed and the European Central Bank."

"Despite the increase in opportunities for Bangladesh's poor to be the beneficiary of small credits from micro-credit lenders, they remain the victims of private money lenders or 'mahajans' in many cases. Studies on micro credit show that mahajans continue to be a big factor in the micro credit scene exploiting the gaps in the availability of credits.

This indicates the importance of increasing the networks of micro credit both by the government and NGOs. Such expansion needs to be accompanied by adequate lowering of the interest charged on the credits. It is also an imperative to curb the exploitation of mahajans who in many cases take as high as 300 percent interest."

"Environmental leaders and managers of Pacific island nations are meeting to discuss an innovative approach to the management of coastal ecosystems, known as ecosystem-based management. The Pacific island nations are facing critical environmental issues of pollution, habitat destruction, declining fisheries and climate change, which threaten their coastal ecosystems impacting food security and wellbeing.

The challenge is to manage coastal and marine lands and waters with a whole-of-government approach, rather than a sectoral approach, and incorporate traditional management structures and practices. Ecosystem-based management is an integrated management approach which addresses the ecological aspects of resource management within the social, economic and political context."

"The government of Finland has signed an agreement to provide grant aid of $9 million so Laos can create a new national geographic map to help with socio-economic development plans. Current geographic services are very old, dating back to 1982. Normally, developing countries update their geographic services every five years.

The project will help Laos to improve socio-economic development initiatives in areas such as transportation infrastructure, land management, environ-mental management, and agriculture. The project will take advantage of new technologies in aerial and digital mapping."

"According to recent press reports, the Bangladesh government has planned 25 measures to increase the tax-GDP ratio which decreased this year because of a shortfall in revenue earnings. The tax-GDP ratio is now only 8.5, which is one of the lowest in South Asia. If the revenue income rises by 0.7 percent a year, infrastructure deficiency in the country can be removed.

The measures to be suggested for revenue increase include enhancement of taxes on luxury goods, tobacco and alcohol. The National Board of Revenue will need to bring commercial activities of non-governmental organizations under the tax net. The International Monetary Fund has been pressing the government to initiate reforms in revenue management to increase revenue collection as the existing system is corruption ridden and not helpful at all for dynamism."

"China has decided to start public hospital reform with pilot programs in selected cities or districts in each province, autonomous region and municipality. The public hospital reform is aimed to establish a reasonable, effective and optimized medical service system, and to fully motivate all medical workers to provide the public with safe, effective, convenient and affordable medical services, according to a statement issued after the meeting.

According to the statement, a coordination mechanism should be established between big public hospitals and grassroots medical service institutions so that they could cooperate with each other with proper division of labor. The management system of public hospitals should also be reformed so that operation and supervision of the hospitals are conducted separately."

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