Much media space is being consumed by whether the middle-class origins and loyalties of Anna Hazare's anti-corruption crusaders de-legitimise the movement by underscoring its ties to the selfish interests of an already privileged elite. Team Anna stands accused of focusing on an &ldquo;easy&rdquo; issue like corruption, while shying away from the rapacious injustices suffered by hundreds of millions of less visible Indians from dispossessed tribals to ignored minorities in the north east.

In either Beijing or Delhi, governments respond to middle-class protests

Business Standard

After nearly 40 years of preferential access to European markets, many of the world&rsquo;s developing economies are set to lose these benefits.

India to lose EU preferential benefits

The clash between a series of newly enacted European laws meant to uphold the region&rsquo;s &ldquo;secular&rdquo; values and those of Islam intensified on Monday, with France becoming the first country in the world to impose a total ban on veils covering the face anywhere in public.

France starts ban on full-face veil

A few months after Chinese Vice Premier Li Keqiang&rsquo;s visit to Spain in January this year which saw local newspapers hailing him as the new Mr Marshall &mdash; a reference to the American secretary of state after whom the post-war reconstruction programme in Europe was named &mdash; Spanish prime minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero is once again looking to China for economic salvation.

Spain seeks economic salvation through China

Germany has always been at the heart of the European project. A nation that came to represent the continent&rsquo;s deepest psychological scars, it was also the motor driving European integration.

Pallavi Aiyar: Europe's schizophrenia over Germany

When the first EU-China summit was held in 1998, the tea leaves could not have predicted the dramatic inversion in the geostrategic balance of power that would have occurred by the time the 14th instalment of the meeting, to be held on October 25, rolled around.

EU, China to meet as Europe battles crises

Europe&rsquo;s economic roller-coaster ride continued with Moody&rsquo;s downgrading Spain&rsquo;s credit rating by two notches against the backdrop of the countdown to Sunday&rsquo;s EU summit.

Moody's downgrades Spain by two notches

Months of squabbling, proposals met with counter proposals, stagnating economies, soaring unemployment, a hyperactive Sarkozy, a populist Merkel, lying Greeks, indignant Spaniards and obstructionist Finns: it sounds like a recipe for an unappetising hotchpotch and most agree that this is exactly what Europe is today.

Pallavi Aiyar: Euro zone & the art of muddling through 

Kamal Nath became the first minister from the developing world to address a plenary session of Europe&rsquo;s Committee of the Regions (CoR) in Brussels, as the urban development minister today proposed a deeper engagement between New Delhi and Europe at the municipal level.

India, Europe must engage at municipal level, says Kamal Nath

The European Commission sought to take centre stage in the euro zone&rsquo;s ongoing debt crisis on Wednesday, with its President, Jos&eacute; Manuel Barroso, unveiling an ambitious plan to tackle the region&rsquo;s fiscal woes, even as Europe reeled from the Slovakian googly which saw the country&rsquo;s parliament reject the crucial expansion of the euro zone&rsquo;s bailout fund.

EU Commission rolls out road map to tackle crisis

The beleaguered bank secures state guarantees worth euro 90 billion in bailout.

Dexia agrees to Belgian unit's nationalisation

Europe&rsquo;s fiscal cauldron continued to bubble over on Wednesday, with no respite in sight from credit rating downgrades and flailing banks, although bank stocks climbed on reports of a recapitalisation plan.

Recapitalise banks or brace for more fiscal problems: IMF 

Gets legal green signal from top law officer, despite non-EU countries&rsquo; combined protest.

EU's airline emission cap likely to take off

Sunday&rsquo;s much-hyped European Union summit, billed as the meeting that would finally resolve the region&rsquo;s ongoing fiscal crisis, is in a crisis itself, after a follow-up summit for Wednesday was set yesterday.

EU's crisis summit in crisis

A silver cloud lit up in the otherwise gloomy skies of rising fuel prices and falling profitability for India&rsquo;s Jet Airways today, with the announcement of a high-speed train connection between the airline&rsquo;s European hub in Brussels and the French capital of Paris. From October 30, passengers on any of Jet&rsquo;s six daily flights from India&rsquo;s New Delhi, Mumbai and Chennai and New York and Toronto in North America to Brussels will be able to have their fill of baguettes and berets in less than two hours travel time.

Rail network set to play a major role in Jet Airways' European strategy

Trade can be a powerful force for economic and social good if the terms on which it is conducted are negotiated fairly. Theoretically, genuine free trade would eliminate borders and boundaries, inviting us to imagine a world where goods, peoples and ideas could flow unimpeded in beneficial symbiosis.

Utopia lacks sponsors: FTA talks with EU resume without drive

Belgium has been without a government for a record 450 days but has managed to grow all the same.

Pallavi Aiyar: The 'benefits' of anarchy

Following a year of wrangling, the European Commission on Wednesday announced it was pressing forward with proposals for the adoption of a financial transaction tax (FTT). Member-states and financial analysts are sharply divided over the consequences and desirability of such a tax, but EC President Jose Manuel Barroso was undeterred as he made the announcement in a state of the union speech to the European Parliament.

EU to proceed with controversial FTT

Brussels&rsquo; legislature adds teeth to earlier deficit &amp; debt norms, plus scrutiny of national budgets; background makes for some scepticism.

New rules on fiscal coordination in EU

Undeterred by the rising chorus of protest over inclusion of the international aviation sector in the European Union&rsquo;s emissions trading scheme (ETS) from January 1 next year, the European Commission today announced it was going to weather the turbulence and go ahead with its proposed  legislation.

Fasten your seat belts, says Brussels

Plagued by declining exports and beset by the sovereign debt crises, European growth could come to a virtual &ldquo;standstill&rdquo; by the end of the year, warned European Commission&rsquo;s top economic official Olli Rehn.

Pallavi Aiyar

Pallavi Aiyar

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