Page 1 of 2 7th November 2011

Health Ministry launches measles vaccination drive Concerned over the large number of child deaths due to measles every year, the Centre has launched a massive anti-measles vaccination drive. More than 13 crore children are expected to be covered under the Measles Catch-up Campaign, irrespective of their previous measles vaccination status. The drive has been launched by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, with support from the Ministry of Human Resource Development (HRD), for carrying out the vaccination programme in primary schools, targeting children aged up to 10 years, particularly in 14 States where the routine immunisation coverage is less than 80 per cent. The States that will benefit from the campaign are Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Bihar, Gujarat, Haryana, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Manipur, Meghalaya, Nagaland, Rajasthan, Tripura, and Uttar Pradesh.

Wikipedia focusing on India this year One of the world's most popular websites Wikipedia has turned its focus on India this year, and is working to reach out to people in the country as part of its expansion plans. Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales said that the free internet encyclopedia has its staff working in India conducting studies and outreach exercises. This year our focus has been India. We have a few people on the ground in India; they're there helping in solving technical questions, with outreach to universities, and PR, letting the public know that Wikipedia exists in all those Indian languages,. Wales is the brain behind world's fifth most popular Website. World Innovation Summit for Education was held in Qatar. High spending on medicines, health to push Indians into poverty, says WHO High spending on medicines and health will push many Indians below the poverty line, the World Health Organization has cautioned. Meet organized by the Delhi Society for Promotion of Rational Use of Drugs (DSPRUD) and WHO on Medication Safety in Hospitals. WHO Regional Advisor Kathleen A. Holloway said most Indians were spending their out-of-pocket income up to an extent of 70 per cent on medicines and healthcare services in comparison to 30 per cent to 40 per cent ratio in other Asian countries like Sri Lanka. And still, she said, these Indians were suffering from the infected diseases in the absence of best quality of drugs and healthcare facilities. Bangladesh mourns Hazarika Bangladesh has mourned Bhupen Hazarika who was intimately linked with its birth. Bhupen da had backed the Mukti Bahini's 1971 War of Liberation with full-throated compositions even as some other songs celebrated the common culture of the subcontinent's eastern part. His song Joy Joy Nobojato Bangladesh; Joy Joy Mukti Bahini ... written on the War of Liberation of Bangladesh would ring forever in the hearts of our people, said Bangladesh Foreign Minister Dipu Moni in a condolence letter to her Indian counterpart S.M. Krishna. India more than doubled its queries to tax havens: report Under pressure to unearth black money stashed away abroad, India has more than doubled its requests to obtain classified funds information from tax havens and other countries in the last two years, according to a report by a global financial body. A progress report, presented by Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) Secretary-General Angel Gurria to G-20 Heads of the Governments during the recent summit in Cannes, also said, Significant additional revenues are expected over the next two years by India by pursuing measures related to anti-black money and counter-tax evasion.

Page 2 of 2 7th November 2011

India has largest collection of manuscripts in world Director of Andhra Pradesh State Archives and Research Institute, Zareena Parveen informed that India possessed an estimated 5 million manuscripts and probably had the largest such collection in the world. These included those stored in shrines, libraries and with individuals.

India presses for new global Internet governance mechanism As the next step in its push for a new global Internet governance mechanism, India recently presented to the United Nations a proposal for the establishment of a Committee for Internet-Related Policies (CIRP). This committee will help to frame international public policies on issues relating to Internet governance. The proposal was formally submitted to the 66th session of the U.N. General Assembly a few days ago by Dushyant Singh, Member of Parliament.

Seat for India in SCO put on the backburner Ahead of a one-day meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) at the level of Prime Ministers in St. Petersburg on Monday, Russia and China have created intrigue with their nuanced comments on the meeting's agenda. Russian Foreign Ministry said the Prime Ministers of China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan would discuss SCO expansion, and more specifically, plans to extend full membership to India and Pakistan, grant observer status to Afghanistan and affiliate Turkey as a SCO dialogue partner.

Attack on Iran more and more likely: Peres Israeli President Shimon Peres has warned that an attack on Iran was more and more likely, days before a report by the U.N. nuclear watchdog on Iran's nuclear programme. He told Israeli private television's second channel: The intelligence services of the different countries that are keeping an eye on Iran are worried and putting pressure on their leaders to warn that Iran is ready to obtain the nuclear weapon. GE Capital aims at exponential leasing business growth Financial services provider GE Capital said that it will expand its leasing business in both new and existing asset areas in India, eyeing exponential growth in volumes in 2012. The company said it is entering into new leasing asset areas and expanding its existing presence in the automotive and equipment leasing for corporate organizations segment. Kirmani fetes Dhoni Syed Kirmani, whose earlier Indian record of 198 dismissals in tests was surpassed by M.S. Dhoni (200, 174 catches, 26 stumpings), extended his congratulations to the Indian skipper. Kirmani said: Many congratulations to Dhoni for what he has achieved. Records are meant to be broken and this is a great feat. Record wins for Nicol David Malaysian squash superstar Nicol David won a record sixth women's World Open title, beating England's Jenny Duncalf 11-2, 11-5, 11-0 in the final. England's Nick Matthew won the men's title with a 6-11, 11-9, 11-6, 11-5 victory over Frenchman Gregory Gaultier in the final. Frazier fighting cancer Former world heavyweight champion Joe Frazier, who battled Muhammad Ali in a famed 1970s boxing trilogy, is fighting for his life with advanced liver cancer.

Health Ministry launches measles vaccination drive