The Londoner

Critics are wrong when they say poverty has not declined. However, they are right, unknowingly though, when they say that the Planning Commission has not been entirely forthcoming about how it arrived at the poverty estimates it put out last week. The commission seems to have quietly tweaked the consumption data for 2009-10 used to estimate poverty. Hence, not only has it undercounted the poor in 2009-10 by some 18 million, it has also made it difficult to compare the poverty numbers with previous years—unless they too are adjusted similarly. Read the full story here.

BHUBANESWAR, India — Maoist rebels in India on Sunday released one of two Italian men who were kidnapped 11 days ago while on an adventure holiday trekking in the eastern state of Orissa. "It was a frightening experience. For the last four days, I was being promised that I will be released," Claudio Colangelo, a 61-year-old tourist from Rome, told the NDTV news channel after being freed. "Finally it has happened. I hope Paolo (Bosusco) is released soon. I hope they understand that Paolo has nothing to do with this war." Read the full story here..

The fate of a Pakistani Hindu woman who claims she was kidnapped, forcibly converted to  Islam  and married against her will is to be decided this week, after weeks of campaigning by the country's Hindu minority. The case of 19-year-old Rinkle Kumari has outraged Hindus from her small town in the south of the country, where community leaders accuse Muslims of preying on Hindu girls of marriageable age. Some claim similar cases are helping to fuel a steady outflow of  Pakistan 's tiny Hindu community as families choose to move to Hindu-majority India instead. In a hearing beginning on Monday, the supreme court in Islamabad will try to get to the bottom of the hotly contested versions of events. Read the full story here.  

I hear the helicopters flyover overhead and I know that Sean Penn is in one of them. He’s probably being taken to the airport in Karachi, Pakistan right now and then onwards back to the US. Sigh. He’s dreamy. The Hollywood icon was in Pakistan for Pakistan Day to visit the Badin desert where the floods hit to distribute relief goods. He spent the morning in Karachi at other engagements, meeting people (story embargoed for print). “What was totally incredulous for us,” said Razaq Khatti, the Badin correspondent for our newsgroup Express, “was that he came in torn jeans, and I looked at his shoes and he didn’t seem like a Hollywood actor at all. He seemed kinda down to earth. His shoes weren’t polished at all. He wasn’t wearing a suit.” Read the full story here. 

REPORTING FROM ISLAMABAD, PAKISTAN -- Pakistani lawmakers on Tuesday took aim at one of the most potent U.S. weapons against militants, recommending that a cessation of drone missile strikes in the country’s volatile tribal areas be part of a blueprint to end a four-month freeze in relations between Washington and Islamabad. So far, however, Pakistani officials have yet to explain what they would do if the U.S. ignored the demand. In the past, Islamabad has publicly condemned U.S. drone strikes but tacitly allowed them to take place. Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan, point man in parliament for the main opposition party, PML-N, questioned the government’s resolve to enforce a ban, given that past resolutions against drone strikes were never heeded. Read the full story here. 

Faisalabad has historically been a city that conducted the manufacturing for global brands. Yet as the middle class in Pakistan expands, it appears that many of the city’s residents are affluent enough – or aspirational enough – to become consumers of those brands, resulting in booming sales for retailers and local franchisees of international brands. Most of the sales of branded clothing and jewellery is taking place through franchises that have bought the right to sell these products to consumers in Faisalabad. The demand for these products is fuelled by the vast segment of the middle class that can afford to buy global brands but not necessarily to fly out to Dubai – or even to Karachi and Lahore – to buy them. Read the full story here. 

With in-principle status of Most Favoured Nation (MFN) granted to India by Pakistan, Indian oil companies – such as the Hindustan Petroleum Corporation (HPCL), the Indian Oil Corporation (IOCL) and GAIL India – are gearing up to cash in on the opportunity by exporting petroleum products and gas to its energy-starved neighbour. Pakistan’s existing refining capacity meets only half its total domestic requirement, while India now exports almost one fourth of its 185 million tonne refining capacity. “Pakistan’s move to ease trade with India could translate into a big opportunity for HPCL, as it will be best positioned to use its INR19,000 crore Bhatinda refinery as a critical gateway. It will be a pragmatic business model, where revenue will more than offset relatively low investment in the pipeline,” said a Mumbai-based oil analyst. Read the full story here.