A steady economic expansion in Indonesia is boosting living standards, curbing poverty and offering millions of people greater access to public services.

Every day one exabyte of data is said to travel over the Internet – enough data to fill 300,000 of the world’s biggest hard disks or 212 million DVDs. And astonishingly, according to a new OECD report on Internet traffic exchange, most of the thousands of networks that exchange this traffic do so without a written contract or formal agreement.

Angel Gurría, Secretary-General of the OECD congratulated the newly elected President of Indonesia, Joko Widodo, for taking a bold first step in his economic reform agenda by substantially cutting fuel subsidies.

The OECD proposes to conduct a first-of-its-kind review of Indonesia’s green growth policies, with the co-operation of four Ministries.

Tourism has boomed in Indonesia in recent years and is already one of the main sources of foreign-currency earnings.

The OECD welcomes the release of voluntary G20 peer reviews of Indonesia and Italy’s efforts to phase out and rationalise their inefficient fossil-fuel subsidies at the 2nd meeting of G20 Energy Transitions Working Group under the Japanese Presidency in Toyama, Japan.

This report develops an analytical framework that assesses the macroeconomic, environmental and distributional consequences of energy subsidy reforms. The framework is applied to the case of Indonesia to study the consequences in this country of a gradual phase out of all energy consumption subsidies between 2012 and 2020.

A new OECD publication highlights notable economic and environmental benefits of phasing out fossil-fuel subsidies in Indonesia. Interestingly, the study is based on the context that pertained until mid-2014, when international oil prices where high and before the recent phase-out of subsidies by the government.

DELSA-G20 Country Note Indonesia-en

Employment: OECD sees high jobless rates continuing - more must be done urgently to boost job creation and help jobseekers

The unemployment rate in Indonesia continues to trend downwards. At 5.7% in Q1 2014, Indonesia’s unemployment rate is considerably below the levels observed in 2007 (above 9%). It is also now well below the OECD average of 7.4%.

Indonesia has improved its macro-economic and structural policies over the last 15 years. Its economy, with strong and stable growth rates of 5–6.6%, is catching up with other countries in the region and allowing Indonesia to focus on its development agenda.

The Indonesian economy has enjoyed strong and stable growth over the past decade and a half, leading to impressive reductions in poverty and major improvements in living standards. But challenges remain to continue to converge towards higher-income countries, according to the latest OECD Economic Survey of Indonesia.

The Indonesian education system is immense and diverse. It reflects aspects of its past, with a diverse ethnic and religious heritage, and a struggle for national identity.

The legendary actress, 85, also revealed that despite her great success, a career in film was never her intention after she was told she would 'never make a movie'.

Union HRD minister Ramesh Pokhriyal 'Nishank' on Saturday announced that the evaluation for class 10, 12 board exams will be done by teachers at their homes and 3,000 schools have been identified as exam centres to deliver the answer sheets to them.

New Delhi, May 09: The evaluation for class 10, 12 board exams will be done by teachers at their homes and 3,000 schools have been identified as exam centres to deliver the answer sheets to them, Union HRD Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal

New Delhi, May 10: The evaluation for class 10, 12 board exams will be done by teachers at their homes and 3,000 schools have been identified as exam centres to deliver the answer sheets to them, Union HRD Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal

Venezuela's military said it seized three abandoned Colombian light combat vessels that soldiers found on Saturday while patrolling the Orinoco river, several days after the government accused its neighbor of aiding a failed invasion.

Venezuela's military said it seized three abandoned Colombian light combat vessels that soldiers found on Saturday while patrolling the Orinoco river, several days after the government accused its neighbor of aiding a failed invasion.

In a pink-walled room of a government office, they spend their days cancelling the passports of runaway husbands.

In shabby backyards and dusty barns, in deserted fields and thick forests, Dieter Klein roams strange and isolated places to find once gleaming vehicles left to rust and ruin. From a dented Porsche to a faded Cadillac, a battered VW Beetle to a whole fleet of abandoned military jeeps, Klein's subjects creak with bygone glamour and might. As moss and gnarled branches transform motors into eerie artifacts, Klein's award-winning automobile photography is not only a tribute to classic cars, but also to the transformative power of nature and the enduring intrigue of people and incidents unknown.The mesmerising results appear in stunning new coffee table book Lost Wheels - The Nostalgic Beauty of Abandoned Cars, which is out next month.Scroll down to see some of the wonderful pieces.

CBSE evaluation for class 10, 12 board exams to be done at home by teachers

Impacts on groundwater quality from abandoned hydrocarbon wells  GOV.UK

The crystal structure of pirfenidone, C12H11NO [alternative name: 5-methyl-1-phenyl­pyridin-2(1H)-one], an active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) approved in Europe and Japan for the treatment of Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF), is reported here for the first time. It was crystallized from toluene by the temperature gradient technique, and crystallizes in the chiral monoclinic space group P21. The phenyl and pyridone rings are inclined to each other by 50.30 (11)°. In the crystal, mol­ecules are linked by C–H⋯O hydrogen bonds involving the same acceptor atom, forming undulating layers lying parallel to the ab plane.

The crystal structure of the organic pigment 2-monomethyl-quinacridone (Pigment Red 192, C21H14N2O2) was solved from X-ray powder diffraction data. The resulting average structure is described in space group Poverline 1, Z = 1 with the molecule on the inversion centre. The molecules are arranged in chains. The molecules, which have no inversion symmetry, show orientational head-to-tail disorder. In the average structure, the methyl group is disordered and found on both ends of the molecule with an occupancy of 0.5 each. The disorder and the local structure were investigated using various ordered structural models. All models were analysed by three approaches: Rietveld refinement, structure refinement to the pair distribution function (PDF) and lattice-energy minimization. All refinements converged well. The Rietveld refinement provided the average structure and gave no indication of a long-range ordering. The refinement to the PDF turned out to be very sensitive to small structural details, giving insight into the local structure. The lattice-energy minimizations revealed a significantly preferred local ordering of neighbouring molecules along the [0ar 11] direction. In conclusion, all methods indicate a statistical orientational disorder with a preferred parallel orientation of molecules in one direction. Additionally, electron diffraction revealed twinning and faint diffuse scattering.

The crystal structure of the nanocrystalline pigment mono­methyl-quinacridone was solved from X-ray powder data. The orientational disorder was investigated using Rietveld refinements, structure refinement to the pair-distribution function, and lattice-energy minimizations of various ordered structural models.

The federal government should not increase the maximum level of copper allowed in drinking water, because higher levels could lead to liver poisoning in infants and children with certain genetic disorders.

A new study suggests that abandoned farmland is widespread in Europe and that not all land that has been abandoned is unsuitable for farming. Understanding how abandoned farmland is distributed may be important for making land management decisions – for instance, recultivation versus reversion to forest.

Scientists have reviewed the potential for worldwide development of geothermal energy systems in old, unused mines. The technology is proven in many sites and could therefore help increase the share of renewable energy sources in the energy mix, offering sustainability and job creation, which may make mining operations more appealing to investors, communities and policymakers.

Annual maps of forest cover in Indonesia reveal that, between 2000 and 2008, almost 10 per cent of forest cover on the islands was lost. Around one fifth of this loss occurred in regions where logging is restricted or prohibited. The new maps will help Indonesia meet the objectives of the UN REDD+ programme, which aims to reduce deforestation and forest degradation.

Water policies at European and French national levels have led to a clear improvement in the water quality of the River Seine, a new study has found. A significant reduction in phosphate and ammonium pollution and increasing oxygen concentrations are evident. However, nitrate concentrations are still higher than the recommended level for good freshwater status, despite substantial reductions of surplus nitrogen in agricultural soils over the past few decades. The researchers recommend strengthening current agri-environmental management measures to help the river to return to a fully healthy status.

Leaving land to return to its wild state could be beneficial for abandoned farmland, according to a new study. The researchers argue that 'rewilding' provides valuable ecosystem benefits and in certain cases could be a more achievable goal than maintaining traditional agriculture in areas of Europe where rural populations are declining.

Wet grasslands abandoned less than 40 years ago can be successfully restored within a decade, a recent analysis suggests. By examining the findings of a range of studies, it identified the causes and consequences of abandonment and the key factors in successful restoration.

The Aichi biodiversity targets, set by the UN Convention on Biological Diversity, are unlikely to be achieved by 2020, a new study suggests — despite some progress towards halting the global loss of biodiversity. The authors of the study call for policy responses to be strengthened if the ongoing loss of nature is to be stopped.

Rewilding, a process of passive management focused on restoring natural ecological processes and reducing human influence on landscapes, could be used to restore the increasing amounts of abandoned agricultural land in Europe to more biodiverse wilderness. A new study has designed a framework to measure potential for rewilding in areas across Europe, highlighting in particular the potential of Natura 2000 sites and suggesting specific aspects of wilderness that future policies could address.

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Watch how carefully a large dam is deconstructed in this time-lapse video showing the removal of Oregon's Gold Ray dam.

Wildlife has slowly but surely returned to the formerly foul tideway. Is swimming in the Thames next?

Marrying ultra-efficiency, altruism and, most importantly, affordability, Green Planet Group and GE break ground on Eco Village at Dunedin, a net-zero energy to

Researchers at Princeton recently studied the question of whether abandoned gas & oil well are leaking methane into the atmosphere.

The magnitude 8.6 earthquake that struck in the Indian Ocean off the western coast of Sumatra today resurrected fears of a repeat of the 2004 Indian Ocean earth

Volcano erupts on Indonesian island of Sulawesi, which had already been hit by a 7.5 earthquake and a tsunami.

Catering to young Londoners struggling to enter the city's real estate market, the YMCA's Y:Cube Housing offers a green prefab-based step toward independence.

Gone but not forgotten, these once-bustling mining outposts offer visitors a look at Old West ghost towns, from kitschy to untouched.

A food cart that uses real food ingredients like grass-fed beef, tallow and coconut milk is a winner in this household.

Looking to check things off your to-do list? Start with a little math.

Stewart Brand, creator of the Whole Earth Catalog, helped shape the future we live in now.

Reebook partners with architecture firm Gensler for 'Get Pumped,' a conceptual scheme in which health-conscious drivers rule the roads.