The World Bank has agreed to provide US$ 314 million (approximately 37 billion rupees) for Sri Lanka to develop education and urban development sectors in order to meet new challenges of the 21st century, the Ministry of Financial and Planning said.

The government has requested the World Bank for funds to expedite development programs which have already been formulated in the education and urban development sectors with foreign assistance.

BHUBANESWAR: In what can be seen as a missive to embarrass Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on the tribal issue, Union Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh on Wednesday alleged that a large number of ‘adivasis’ are in jail in Odisha, for no reason whatsoever, and they should be freed at the earliest.

Around the same time when Mohammad Yunus and his Grameen Bank were writing their Nobel story of rural empowerment, a woman in the humble districts of south Bengal started a micro-credit scheme similar to that of the Bangladeshi icon who was feted with the Peace prize in 2006. Madhuri Ghosh hadn’t heard of Yunus or his work when she formed the Bagnan I Mahila Bikash Co-operative Credit Society Ltd in 1997, but her feat is no less inspiring.

The UPA II government on Tuesday showcased several initiatives that have helped in sustaining the environment during its three-year rule despite the fact that delay in environmental approvals have hurt project implementation and overall industrial growth. The report to the people outlined the major steps taken to preserve the environment. It talked about the National Action Plan on Climate Change, forest conservation, mission clean Ganga, the setting up of the National Green Tribunal and tiger conservation.

Bhubaneswar: School and mass education minister Pratap Jena on Tuesday said that special strategies and plan of action were being taken up to implement the Right to Education Campaign-2012 and it was decided to finalise the District Plan for the RTE campaign by June 5. Briefing newsmen here, Jena said that core committees would be formed in all district project offices and the first meeting as to how to carry out the campaign to create awareness to mobilise students to schools would be held by June 5 and by this time.

Bhubaneswar: Finance minister Prafulla Chandra Ghadai on Tuesday said that Odisha has been able to reduce the net debt stock from 55.92 per cent of the GSDP in 2001-02 to 15.86 per cent in 2011-12, thereby achieving the desired level of 25 per cent recommended by the 13th Finance Commission. It is targeted to reduce the debt stock further to 15.55 per cent by the end of the current fiscal- 2012-13.

National Rural Livelihood Mission aiming at ensuring economic development of poor rural families is being implemented in 15 districts of Madhya Pradesh in the first phase. Now, livelihood activities of the mission will begin in ten more districts and cover 25 districts under District Poverty Initiative Project. These include 12 thousand 800 villages in 116 development blocks.