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New Delhi: The Chief Ministers Conference on Internal Security got underway here this morning. Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh inaugurated the Conference, which is the fourth in a row. In his speech, the Prime Minister said that we can note with some satisfaction that the measures for strengthening our capacity to deal with internal security challenges which were initiated post November 2008, are now yielding tangible results. He said that the year 2010 saw a decrease in the number of incidents and casualties of security forces over the previous year. However, the number of casualties among civilian has increased. The Prime Minister emphasized the need for our police officers to be specially sensitive to the problems faced by the Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, Minorities and women and felt that we need to bring forth changes to make policemen people-friendly.

New Delhi: The 8th Meeting of the International Advisory Panel (IAP) for reviewing the National Rural Health Mission was held in New Delhi today. The Panel led by Professor Jeffrey D Sachs, Director, Earth Institute, University of Columbia along with their team of experts, commended the impressive performance and dramatic results achieved under NRHM in a record short span, terming NRHM an extraordinary model in Public Health management.

New Delhi: Ethiopia has invited Indian farmers for commercial farming in view of high skill and experience of Indian farmers in commercial crops. Calling on Minister of State for Consumer Affairs, Food & Public Distribution, Prof. K.V.Thomas here today, Ethiopian Minister of Agriculture, Mr. Tafera Derbew said that Indian farmers can avail the opportunity of vast farming land set aside by his country for commercial farming and grow pulses and edible oil crops for export to India.

Shri Anand Sharma, Union Minister of Commerce & Industry, met the Italian Foreign Minister, Mr. Franco Frattini, in Rome today and discussed bilateral relations and economic cooperation. During the meeting, Shri Sharma raised the issue of simplification of visa procedures for business leaders and professionals.

New Delhi: In view of increasing coal demand to meet the requirement of power generation in the country, Ministry of Coal has requested the State Governments not to sterilize coal bearing areas by taking up infrastructural projects.

MANILA, PHILIPPINES - The Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the Nordic Development Fund are to help Viet Nam draw up and implement detailed climate change action plans for key cities and government departments.

Economic and social change such as has occurred in the so-called “reform” era, “gradually and lawfully”, as is the claim of the ruling elite in India, has side by side, logically and forcefully led step by step to the sharpening of turbulence and emergence of novel alignments in the contention for political power. The assertive mood of the mass of the people seems to have brought the matters to a head in context of the crisis. The social, economic and political environment has so turned in which the role and space for the vested interests in official policy making has provoked popular masses to confront the UPA-II government.

How true is the conventional wisdom that Pakistan’s disintegration is the worst thing that can happen to India? The standard belief is that our neighbour’s descent into chaos will lead to anarchy in India as well. However, leaving aside the question of nuclear weapons till later, it may be worthwhile to consider what will happen if Pakistan’s civil structure does fall part.

WASHINGTON - The World Bank Board of Directors today approved a new Country Partnership Strategy (CPS) for Montenegro, providing the framework for the World Bank’s assistance to Montenegro during the period 2011–14. The CPS reflects both Montenegro’s status as an upper middle income country with well-defined development priorities and its overarching policy objective of advancing the process of integration into the European Union (EU).

New York: Poppy cultivation in Afghanistan is expected to decline slightly this year despite the current high prices of opium, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) said today, basing the information on a qualitative assessment of farmers’ intentions in the Asian country.