Evening Edition

Some table topics as you start preparing for dinner:

• Humanitarian awards: The Grameen Foundation reports today that Mohammad Yunus will be awarded the James C. Morgan Global Humanitarian Award. The award will be bestowed upon Yunus at the Tech Museum of Innovation award ceremony in November (by the way, the nomination deadline for the Tech Museum award has been extended until April 7th! Watch a video here).
• Tourism: The Times of India reports that the medical tourism industry is booming, with medical tourists increasing by 25% each year. McKinsey predicts that earnings from medical tourism will reach $2 billion by the year 2012. In its latest report, the Planning Commission did a performance and price comparison for medical procedures between different countries, and found that India offered “superior quality of medical service coupled with the low cost of surgeries.”
• Technology/Connectivity: Nokia Siemens, in partnership with BSNL, will deploy broadband access to an additional 25,000 Indian villages by July of this year. In a statement, Micael Kuehner, who heads up Nokia Siemen’s sub India region division said, “With a population of 700 million, rural India, without a doubt holds the key to the future growth of the telecommunication industry and the long term economic and social development of the country.”