Daily News Notes

· The Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh will push for more effective measures for global economic and financial recovery, UN reforms, Millennium Development Goals and an anti-terror convention during his visit to the United Nations for 66th UN General Assembly Session.
· The government has set a target of providing banking facilities to the rural areas having a population of 2000 or more by the end of March 2012. Finance Minister also dedicated 5 specialized branches of Bank of Maharastra to the Self Help Groups spread over Maharastra region.
· In Uttarakhand, giving some relief to the common man, the State government has reduced VAT on petrol.
· Polling to elect 170 members of the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee SGPC is going on peacefully in Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh and Union Territory of Chandigarh under tight security.
· In Pakistan, recent floods triggered by heavy monsoon rains in the southern part of the country, have killed nearly 300 people and affected 6 million.
· The Indian Railways will install GPS-based passenger information system (Satellite Imaging for Rail Navigation, SIMRAN system) in trains enabling passengers to find out the exact location, speed and arrival time of trains on a real-time basis.
· India's Vishnu Vardhan lost to Japanese Kei Nishikori in the reverse singles tie of the Davis Cup World Group Tennis play off matches in Tokyo. Mahesh Bhupathi and Rohan Bopanna yesterday won their Men's doubles tie.
· Vegetable clusters will become operational across the country this rabi season to ensure uninterrupted supply of vegetables to cities and towns. The scheme, called the National Vegetable Initiative is a part of the Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana and will cover all aspects related to vegetable production, from supply of planting material and production to marketing.
· As prices of milk going up frequently, Indian Scientists have developed 14 non-dairy based calcium-rich food include finger millet porridge or ragi dosa, rice porridge with poppy seeds, cheese sandwich, spinach-cottage cheese vegetable and sweets like rasmalai and rasgulla, sesame or til ladoo, and sesame-soybean chutney.