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New York: The United Nations began laying the groundwork today for a global “social protection floor” that would guarantee food security, health services for all and old-age pensions, with a senior official stressing that all that is lacking is the political will for an initiative needing minimum investment.

New York: Hundreds of infants in Kenya received their first shots against pneumococcal disease today at a special United Nations-backed event to celebrate the global roll-out of vaccines targeting the world’s leading cause of child deaths – pneumonia.

New Delhi: Union Finance Minister Shri Praban Mukherjee said that the problem of inflation continues to be challenging. He was reacting to the data of WPI inflation released today. The Finance Minister said while the WPI inflation in January 2011, at 8.23 per cent, is lower than the previous month’s inflation of 8.43 per cent, the decrease is too small for him to be comfortable. Shri Mukherjee said that the food article inflation in January 2011 stood at 15.65 per cent which is more than the 13.55 per cent in December 2010. The Finance Minister said that fortunately, the inflation rate of manufactured food declined to (–) 1.3 per cent. The Minister said that overall food inflation is in single digit and stands at 9.3 per cent.

New Delhi: In order to evolve a suitable mechanism for direct subsidies to individuals/families who are entitled to Kerosene, LPG and Fertilizer and to evolve a model of direct transfer of subsidies on these items by re-engineering existing systems, processes and procedures in the implementation process, the Government of India has constituted a Task Force under the Chairmanship of Shri Nandan Nilekani, Chairman, Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI). This Task Force would also undertake designing appropriate IT systems and aligning these with the issuance of UID numbers, and bringing about changes in the administration and supply chain management.

MANILA, PHILIPPINES - The Asian Development Bank (ADB) signed a $300 million loan agreement with Thailand today for capital market development designed to boost investment and support long term growth.

The controversy generated by the Haryana government’s land acquisition policy has caused fresh stirrings in state politics. While it has reactivated the Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda’s hitherto dormant detractors in the Congress, it has given an opportunity to the opposition to sharpen its offensive against the state government.

KOLKATA: With the destruction of government property worth Rs 50 crore by armed mobs led by Gorkha Janmukti Morcha in North Bengal hills , it is clear that the state government is plain scared to restore governance there.

Bengaluru: Over 75,000 visitors thronged Aero India 2011 venue here on Sunday despite an India-Australia ICC World Cup warm up match in the city. The five-day Asia’s largest air show that had some of the world’s leading aerospace industries displaying some of their flying machines and equipment came to a successful close.

The Finance Minister Mr Pranab Mukherjee, a trouble-shooter for the UPA Government’s woes, faces a more challenging situation than the smooth run he had hoped for, to present an ambitious budget for 2011-12 to lead India back to the “high growth trajectory” with fiscal consolidation on track. Mr. Mukherjee’s sole mantra throughout the year has been to put India on 9 per cent growth, he did not have as much to bother with the brutal food inflation which ravaged the poor and low-income groups for two years.

Tahrir Square and Tiananmen Square will be remembered in history for two different reasons. These two spots are separated by distances, one in Africa and the other in Asia.