In her Union Budget 2022 speech on February 1, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced the issuance of sovereign green bonds during the upcoming fiscal year. “As a part of the government’s overall market borrowings in 2022-23, sovereign green bonds will be issued for mobilizing resources for green infrastructure. The proceeds will be deployed in public sector projects which help in reducing the carbon intensity of the economy,” Ms. Sitharaman stated. Several Indian non-financial corporations have issued a variety of green bonds in recent years, but this will be the country’s first sovereign green bond issuance.

At the time of writing, additional information about proposed…

More than 100 civil society organisations, including Madhyam, have sought a major overhaul of the World Bank’s governing structures and policies following the scandal that led to the scrapping of its flagship publication, the ‘Doing Business’ report. This report ranks 190 countries on the Ease of Doing Business index. Following is the full text of the statement issued by CSOs on October 12, 2021:

In September, the World Bank announced that it would discontinue the publication of the Doing Business Report and Ranking (DBR). This overdue decision came after a series of internal audits and an investigation that revealed serious ethical improprieties, conflicts…

Even though the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic has partially subsided across India, the extent to which citizens of the country have been affected continues to remain unclear. Official statistics show that the total number of those infected since the outbreak of the pandemic is pushing towards the 2.5 crore mark and more than 3 lakhs have lost their lives, figures that several prominent experts have questioned.

Well beyond these cold statistics is the cruel reality of human suffering that the COVID-19 pandemic has heaped on every affected family. Countless families have been left traumatised, having witnessed their suffering kin choking for want of…

The European Union (EU) is keen to enter into a trade agreement with India. EU was formed in 1993, and India was amongst the first countries to establish ties with this political and economic group. A cooperation agreement was signed between them in 1994. A decade later, in 2004, the relationship was upgraded to a ‘Strategic Partnership.’ The 2005 Joint Action Plan that followed committed both sides to develop trade and investment. Ever since then, both sides have been trying to agree on a trade and investment deal.

Background

In 2007 EU-India launched negotiations for a bilateral trade and investment agreement (BTIA). But negotiations did not…

On March 1, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala took over as Director-General of the World Trade Organization. She is the first woman and the first African to serve as the Director-General of the WTO. These are indeed remarkable achievements that need to be noticed and celebrated. As she holds dual Nigerian and US citizenship, Okonjo-Iweala is also the first American to hold this position.

Addressing the WTO General Council immediately after taking office, Okonjo-Iweala outlined numerous challenges faced by the WTO in the post-pandemic world and the need to pursue necessary reforms to keep the organization relevant.

She also called upon members to shun business as usual approach and…