Midday Newsfeed

Saturday afternoon news:

• Social welfare: The Government of Himachal Pradesh is planning to issue separate ration cards to single widows in the state to enable them draw benefits under various state social welfare programmes. (Source: iGovernment)
• Health research: Using supercomputing simulations and lab experiments, an IBM research team plans to accelerate the design of drugs that inhibit infections caused by the HIV virus. In other news, US based Global Healthcare Investments & Solutions (GHIC) plans to invest $500 million in the Indian healthcare sector. The fund is expected to operate for a period of 2 years.
• CSR: Hindustan Unilever celebrated 75 years in India by announcing the expansion of its social initiatives, including sourcing agricultural raw materials from primary producers, women’s empowerment, and a 25 percent reduction of carbon dioxide from its manufacturing by 2012.
• Clean Energy: A Green Investor Summit will take place in New Delhi on April 9 to bring together Cleantech investors and SMEs and to discuss how to make India a hub for clean technologies.
• Business: At the Government Leaders Forum in Miami yesterday, Bill Gates urged businesses to “see serving the poor as part of their mission,” which he had earlier termed “creative capitalism.” Topics of discussed included microfinance, insurance, savings, technology, and education (namely one laptop per child).