"Would-be banks seeking a license in India may be asked to form alliances with regional rural banks (RRBs) to help them begin operations on a wider footprint and also to hasten financial inclusion in a nation where half of farmer households have no access to credit. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is likely to set a condition that new banks open a certain minimum number of branches in unbanked areas, according to an official.

Regional rural banks could increase the reach of bank branches by a fifth. There are 82 RRBs with 15,475 branches in 619 districts. Scheduled commercial banks have about 65,000 branches, two-thirds in cities and towns, leaving a vast number of the 640,000 villages unbanked."

"A single oil field in Kazakhstan stands ready to produce two-thirds as much oil each day as the entire Mexican gulf does, with less danger to the environment. But 30 years after its discovery, the field, known as the Tengiz, is still running at only about half speed. The problem with the Tengiz field is not a matter of extracting the oil. More than 100 working wells have already been successfully drilled into the scrub desert of western Kazakhstan, near the Caspian Sea. The challenge is getting the oil to the market.

The Tengiz field, one of the world's largest known petroleum reservoirs, is tied to a 1500-kilometer pipeline to the Black Sea that the Russian government has declined for years to expand. As a result, instead of the 600,000 barrels a day from the Tengiz field that the planners had envisioned by now, the operator has been limited to pumping about 420,000 barrels through the CPC pipeline to the Black Sea -- the nearest entry point to international sea lanes."

"The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) said the strengthening of the rural banking industry is set to take off after monetary authorities approved the model of the contribution of the central bank to the P5 billion ($109 million) fund. BSP would contribute half of the P5 billion package in the form of loans to state-run Philippine Deposit Insurance Corp. (PDIC).

The BSP official added that the central bank is open to increasing the P5-billion fund allocated for the incentive program. The fund would be used to extend financial assistance to qualified investors through a combination of subscription to preferred shares, to provide additional capital to reinforce the capital position of the strategic third party investor and as direct loans."

"It is not uncommon in Viet Nam's rural areas for a family member's illness to plunge the household so deep in debt that they have to sell the only source of livelihood they have -- their land. Later, they subsist on hiring out their labor in surrounding areas or neighboring cities, forcing children to give up their education or parents to leave their children behind with relatives to work in cities to pay off their debt.

Several reports have noted that illness, accompanied by the lack of affordable healthcare, is one of the most common reasons for people to fall into poverty. This dismal state of affairs could get worse for patients nationwide who would have to spend a lot more on hospital fees if and when a draft document on the issue jointly prepared by the Ministry of Health and Ministry of Finance takes effect. The document proposes increases in hospital fees that are up to 10 times more than current rates, but policymakers argue that these increases are nominal, adjusted for inflation."

"Farmers in many regions in Indonesia suffer losses due to crop harvest failure and widespread crop pests caused by weather anomalies in which there are still fairly intense rains in the dry season. Although the government has a National Action Plan for climate change impact adaptations published in 2007, concrete measures in the agricultural sector to adapt against climate change have not received serious attention.

In reality, many farmers are confused and perform adaptation efforts by trial and error due to the lack of clear information from relevant agencies. In fact, adaptation efforts themselves are less pronounced than climate change mitigation efforts globally. Many parties still put more focus on mitigation efforts to anticipate climate change impacts in the form of reducing carbon emissions and other greenhouse gases than to adaptation endeavors."

"Rising unemployment and food prices and a sluggish economy are taking their toll on Bangladesh, where a growing number of people are struggling to survive. About 40 percent of Bangladesh's 160 million people live on less than $1 a day and are food insecure, according to government figures, and a rapidly expanding population -- combined with rising unemployment, inflation, the economic slowdown and unpredictable weather-related disasters -- is leading the country deeper into a food crisis.

According to the World Food Programme (WFP), the number of people who consume less than the minimum daily recommended amount of food rose from 47 million in 1990, to 56 million in 2005. Following floods and Cyclone Sidr in 2007, that figure peaked in 2008 at 65 million. Nearly 60 percent of food insecure households said they were going hungry due to insufficient income."

"The city of Beijing cannot afford unlimited expansion. Water shortages alone, even after water is diverted from the remote south, may render it unlivable at some point. That Beijing and some other metropolises have been drawing people like magnets has little to do with whether control is strict or loose. It is the inevitable consequence of the imbalance, and inequity, in the way public resources are distributed.

People across the country covet to live in Beijing and the few other major cities because they have the country's best schools, hospitals and other facilities. The ultimate solution, therefore, is to narrow the regional development gap. To achieve that, however, the current pattern of distribution has to be changed. Unless the promises of support for the central and western regions are matched with genuine action of substantial allocations from central funds there is no way people can be stopped from flocking to mega-cities."

"Indian cities which figure in a global report as among the world's richest urban centers also suffer from a paradox; they are drivers of growth but also drivers of poverty. No city testifies to this anomaly as vividly as Mumbai. The city contributes 33 percent of government revenues and accounts for 40 percent of the country's foreign trade, while more than half its population lives in slums and on pavements.

Some studies show that one toilet is shared by 80 people. The city gets an average of 200 liters of water per capita daily (lpcd) but in slums that average falls to 80 lpcd; only a third of the slum children are likely to finish 10 years of schooling and even that may be an overblown estimate."

"The Agriculture Ministry has stepped up a restructuring program that could lead to better farm zoning for food and fuel crops in Thailand. The restructuring plans would first focus on 20 designated 'farm estates', in which necessary facilities and pre-and post-harvest management would be provided to improve productivity and ensure sustainable development in agriculture.

While industrial estates have been equipped with facilities for efficient manufacturing and well supported by the government, farm estates would also receive basic infrastructure such as proper irrigation, soil improvement, and the use of good seed. The focus will be on rice, maize, cassava, sugarcane, and oil palm but farmers in the estates would be also encouraged to run integrated farming, allowing them to grow other crops and raise livestock."

"Poverty remains a big stumbling block to progress in Bangladesh and by extension the South Asian region. That fact has been confirmed once more by the UNDP's Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) prepared to assess the factors related to poor living conditions in South Asia. Of the 104 countries assessed in the MPI, Bangladesh has been ranked 73, with India close at 74. Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka have been placed at 82, 70 and 32 respectively.

The MPI assesses the performance of nations on a benchmark of ten indicators which are grouped under three dimensions, namely, health, education and standard of living. Health comprises child mortality and nutrition, while education brings together years of schooling and child enrolment. Within the standard of living canvas come electricity, drinking water, sanitation, flooring, cooking fuel and assets. The MPI report notes that as much as 57.8 per cent of Bangladesh's population stand deprived of at least 30 percent of these indicators."

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