New Delhi, Jan. 7 : The Second Global Innovation Index 2008 (GII) jointly published by Confederation of Indian Industry and INSEAD Business School, has once again placed United States at the top of the Global Innovation Rankings. India, on the other hand, is ranked a lowly 41.

The GII that has studied 130 countries has ranked Germany in the second position, followed by Sweden, the United Kingdom and Singapore.

The European economies including the Nordic ones continued to do well in 2008. Switzerland, Denmark and the Netherlands figured in the top 10 apart from Germany, Sweden and UK that figure in the top 5. However, France was the biggest loser slipping from the 5th to 19th position.

New Delhi, Jan. 7 : Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee on Wednesday justified the live coverage of the proceedings of the Lok Sabha for public knowledge.

The Speaker said people had the right to know how their representatives act and behave inside the House.

"I think people have a right to know how their representatives act, behave and work inside the House," said Somnath Chatterjee while stating that a section of the people think "different type of behaviour" of the MPs should not be shown on Lok Sabha TV.

New Delhi, Jan. 7 : Two Canadian ministers involved with that country''s development in the agricultural sector and immigration-related issues, will arrive in India on an official at the weekend.

Gerry Ritz, Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food and Minister for the Canadian Wheat Board; and Jason Kenney, Minister of Citizenship, Immigration and Multiculturalism are expected to use their visit to demonstrate the growing breadth of Canada-India relations in sectors ranging from agriculture to immigration, a Canadaian High Commission release said here today.

New Delhi, Jan 7 : The government has offered its full support to states grappling with the Maoist problem.

In a meeting with Home Minister P. Chidambaram here today, Chief Ministers of seven states - Chhattisgarh, Bihar, Jharkhand, Orissa, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra and West Bengal, severely affected by Maoist violence put forth their problems and were assured of support, both in terms of development and security.

The meeting comes a day after a conference of all state chief ministers, where Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh called for adopting a proper strategy to deal with the Maoist problem, described as the country''s biggest internal security threat.

New Delhi, Jan 7 : Defence Minister AK Antony today said that India would keep all its options open to dismantle the “terror infrastructure” in the aftermath of the Mumbai terror attacks.

The Defence Minister’s statement reflected the Indian officials increasing frustration at what they see as Pakistan’s unwillingness to fully probe the Mumbai carnage in which militants killed more than 170 people.

New Delhi, Jan 7 : Union Minister for Health and Family Welfare, Dr Anbumani Ramadoss today exhorted new doctors to stay in the country, as the country is in great need of quality medical human resource.

Addressing the 36th Annual Convocation of the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, here, Dr Ramadoss told graduating doctors that they have been given quality education in the premier institute of the country, and therefore, are a valuable commodity in the light of huge shortfall of specialists in the country.