"The number of Afghans with access to electricity has only inched up from 6 percent in 2001 to an estimated 10 percent now, well short of the development goal to provide power to 65 percent of urban and 25 percent of rural households by the end of this year. Afghanistan consumes less energy per person than any other country in the world, even after years of reconstruction efforts.

For Afghans, each nightfall is a reminder of promises not kept. Without lights, they cannot work, and their children cannot study. The setbacks stretch far beyond Kabul. Only 497,000 of the country's 4.8 million households are connected to what passes for a national power grid, despite more than $1.6 billion already spent on energy projects."

"The Agricultural Bank of China (ABC) loaned 82.9 billion yuan ($12.23 billion) in micro-credit to Chinese farmers in the first three months of the year, compared with 67.3 billion yuan in the whole of 2009. Starting in April 2008, ABC's micro-credit business, which makes loans of 3,000 to 50,000 yuan in size, has helped 15 million farmers across the country.

Thanks to a 30,000 yuan micro-credit loan from the local ABC branch at the end of 2009, Bu Nianhua, a grape grower, has been able to afford a new high-yield grape. The half acre of Minicure Finger grapes alone will bring him 75,000 yuan in income this year. In a break with the past, Bu's loan was guaranteed by two other farmers, instead of by enterprises. Like Bu, many other farmers have received financial support from ABC through an innovative credit guarantee system."

"Businesspeople are in an uproar over the 10-15 percent hike in electricity rates in Indonesia. Most agree that the current electricity tariffs, which are the lowest among ASEAN countries and are way below the production expenses of the State Electricity Monopoly (PLN), are not sustainable in the long term because they are a huge burden on taxpayers, discourage conservation and hinder new investment in power generation.

Most people also agree that the huge electricity subsidy (almost Rp 60 trillion or $6 billion this year) should be gradually phased out. Yet a more socially and politically acceptable element of the tariff policy is that electricity users with load capacities of between 450 and 900 VA, which represent nearly 30 million low-income households and make up more than 75 percent of PLN's 40 million customers, are exempt from the tariff hike. But businesses have calculated that the bottom line impact of the price hike is not just the 10-15 percent rise to their monthly bills, as they had initially assumed, but 30 to 80 percent."

"Viet Nam's summer-fall rice harvest is in full-swing but buyers are wary amid sagging foreign demand and a rising global supply. Some rice firms are looking to markets abroad to nudge up Viet Nam's export levels as a surplus has flooded the global market. Early this month, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development announced that nearly half of the 1.7 million hectares of paddy rice in the southern region had been harvested.

In the Mekong Delta, the nation's largest rice producer, buyers paid VND3,000 (20 US cents) per kilogram, 20 percent less than they paid during the previous harvest. Stats show a glut in the market. According to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations, India's rice output may rise by 13 percent this year. Some other big rice producers such as China, Indonesia and Bangladesh have also seen bumper harvests."

"The owners of Bangladesh's readymade garment (RMG) industries fear if the minimum wage is fixed at a level beyond what they can afford, it would deal a death-blow to the industry. Then again, if the wage is well below the expectations of workers, it might trigger widespread violence having severe consequence on the apparel sub-sector. So, the wage issue is a double-edged sword.

There is no denying that the wages the average RMG workers get are not enough to sustain a living in a situation where prices of food items, transportation costs and house rent have been going up unabatedly. Industry leaders have made a fervent appeal to strike a balance between the minimum basic need of the workers and the affordability of industry owners."

"For an alarming number of India's 91 million population who are aged over 60, neglect, loneliness, mental and physical abuse, depression and lack of proper medical care, are turning the dusk of their life into a living nightmare. As women generally have longer life spans than men, they account for slightly more than half of the older population and represent nearly two-thirds of the population who are over 85.

There has been a steep rise in suicides by the elderly in India as depression, disease and the lack of care induces a sense of helplessness. The situation is several times worse for those who are not financially secure. In such a scenario, helplines for the elderly have emerged as a lifeline. Often they are the only support senior citizens have in teeming metropolises like Kolkata."

"Fish are the primary source of income for residents of Koh Kong, rustic border town in southwestern Cambodia, but when the area's sand dredging vessels prowl the waters to plough up the riverbed, the fish all but disappear. Prime Minister Hun Sen banned sand exports in May 2009, yet sand mining continues in Koh Kong Province, the epicenter of the country's corrupt dredging industry.

Dredging extracts sand below the sea floor, disturbing marine life and, more significantly, the spawning grounds that replenish it. Dredgers remove 25,000 tons of sand each day from Cambodian seas to export primarily to Singapore, where it is used for land reclamation, according to a report."

"Manufacturing will remain a major part of the PRC economy for at least the next 100 years despite strikes and increased labor costs, according to a leading economics research body. Manufacturing currently makes up around 47 percent of China's gross domestic product (GDP), compared with 23 percent in the United States.

There is little doubt that increasing labor costs in China will have some impact over time. The hourly labor rate for apparel manufacturing in China, according to EIU statistics, has increased by 14 percent since 2009 to $1.84. It now costs nearly four times as much to employ a Chinese worker in the garment sector than someone from Viet Nam, where the hourly labor rate over the past year has increased by just 2 percent to 49 cents. China still has cheaper labor rates than India."

"The manic growth of new housing projects of ever-increasing size in India is defended and authorized by a false prioritization of housing, over everything else that makes community life a rich experience. That policymakers and builders should be ready to turn the few remaining 'green lungs' into housing tracts or parking lots or enclosed stadia reveals the false dichotomy between the compulsion for housing units and long-term benefits from open spaces for recreation.

One objective of the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM) is to provide a host of 'Basic Services to Urban Poor' that includes slum redevelopment, clean sanitation and drinking water. With the huge demand for luxury housing within cities, existing civic amenities are severely tested through a process of exclusive appropriation. Already, many cities in western India are heading for water shortages with cuts in supply likely to continue."

"When the regional autonomy law came into effect in Indonesia it was envisioned that regional governments could be empowered to fuel economic growth, fund development and create jobs. Yet more than a decade after the law came into effect, precious little development in the way of education, health care and infrastructure has taken place. Rather than boost their budgets through economic growth, most regional governments are still highly dependent on the central government for their funds.

Less than 6 percent of the state budget channeled to provincial and district governments is spent on development and public service. The rest is spent on operations. Most of the funds are spent on the building of government facilities like offices. Little is allocated to the direct needs of the people and far less so to empower them economically. Auditors say that regional governments must focus on job creation and economic independence from the central government."

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