The post-Kim Jong Il situation on the Korean Peninsula remains tense. This year will be a critical year for the peninsula. Will the new North Korean leadership be successfully stabilized or not? The upcoming presidential election in South Korea will have a great impact on the security situation...

The Reserve Bank of India, in its Annual Policy Statement on April 28, 2005, for the year 2005-06, announced its intention to reorient government debt management operations entailing functional separation between debt management and monetary operations within RBI. This first step initiating the...

Establishing a debt management office would consolidate all debt management functions in a single agency, and be the catalyst for wider institutional reform and transparency about public debt. It is internationally accepted best practice that debt management should be disaggregated from monetary...

An attempt is made to identify the determinants of yield spreads between the State and Central government securities in a panel data framework as has been used in several cross-country studies. This study examines the potential impact of fiscal as well as market related factors on the yield...

Despite numerous empirical studies examining various facets of the topic, the degree of intraregional financial integration in East Asia remains a matter of vigorous debate. This paper offers a selective survey of the recent empirical literature on financial integration, the focus being on...

With the two leaders of Japan and South Korea having failed to hold an official meeting between them since coming to office, historical issues remain a thorn in the the betterment of Japanese-South Korean relations. There continue to be anti- Korean ultra-nationalist protests in Japan while...

Spot fire disputes have sparked across Asia, with the winds of nationalism spurring them on. If one flares up it could ignite a region. Escalating tensions should have mediators vigilant and with pails of water at the ready. With tensions escalating rapidly in Asia’s territorial disputes,...

Rapid demographic ageing is a growing public health issue in many low- and middle-income countries (LAMICs). Mild cognitive impairment (MCI) is a construct frequently used to define groups of people who may be at risk of developing dementia, crucial for targeting preventative interventions....

The production of machine tools has long been associated with industrialisation besides a formidable factor of technical change and international competitiveness. This potent role of machine tool industry was amply recognised by several countries. As a consequence, they framed policies to...

The paper discusses the impacts of free-trade policy on the agricultural exports of Kerala.