The Economic Times(weekly news)Submitted by:

Jaisna MBA 2 (C)

India drops to 51st position in global

competitiveness ranking

India has slipped by two places to 51st in the World

Economic Forum's global competitiveness rankings,

while rival China has managed to improve its standing to

29th.

As per the WEF's Global Competitiveness Report 2010-

11, released today, Switzerland is No. 1 in the world in

terms of its ability to provide the most competitive

environment on several fronts.

India has been pushed down to 51st position from 49th due to its poor performance in a range of social sector areas such as education, health and infrastructure. Though India has performed well in complex financial sector areas, attaining the 17th rank globally in terms of its financial markets, 44th in business sophistication and 39th in innovation, it has failed to improve the basic drivers of competitiveness.

There are two Indias," said Thierry Geiger, an associate director at WEF-world economic forum.

"While there is widespread poverty, poor health and education facilities and poor infrastructure in rural India, the other India is experiencing rapid growth,“

He praised China, which climbed up to 27th position from 29th last year, for making a dent in poverty and for improving overall access to education and health, suggesting that India is far from making a noticeable impact in these two areas.

Monsoon rains 26 pct above normal in past week

India's vital monsoon rains were 26 percent

above normal in the week to Sept. 8, compared

with 16 percent above normal in the previous

week, the weather office said on Thursday.

The weekly reading reflects above-average

showers over most parts of the country, except

in the eastern region.

Total rainfall since June 1 was 1 percent

above normal, it said.

The June-September monsoon rains,

which deliver 75 percent to 90 percent of

India's rainfall, is vital for its farm output

and economic growth, as only 40 percent

of the country's farms are irrigated.

Canada wants more talented Indians: Minister

India has emerged as one of the top source countries of immigration to Canada and Ottawa is looking forward to more number of talented Indians who can contribute to its development.

In 2009, India was the top source country of immigration to Canada and obviously Punjab was leading on this front," Canadian Citizenship, Immigrationand Multiculturalism Minister Jason Kenney told reporters here on Thursday evening.

We are maintaining a unique immigration programmeas compared to other developed countries like the US, Britain and Australia. All of them have put a cut on the number of new immigrants but we have not done this," he stated.

To help Indian students settle in Canada after completing their studies, we have launched Canadian Experience Class (CEC) scheme. Last year, nearly 3,500 students availed this scheme and this year we are expecting around 500 Indian students to go for it," he said.

Govt to rent out computers in rural areas at Rs 15 a day The government’s new move to rent

computers, but admits there is a huge power and maintenance problem which prevents PC buying in rural areas. “It costs about 16,000 for power over five years, to run a desktop PC. For adult education , renting computers for a few hours may be a good idea,”

HCL in 2006 had launched a Community PC with an innovative power management system called RP2 that switches the computer to a power battery. The battery can be charged by using bicycle peddle power. But that computer too failed to see heightened demand in rural India. Clearly, the government needs to create a utility-based demand before it can work out these models for rural areas.