Tired of having the same old meal while on a train journey? Well, the railways now has introduced, on an experimental basis, a “Book a Meal” service on board two of its trains, the Goa Express and the Karnataka Express.

The recent inconclusive meet of the International Whaling Commission (IWC) at Agadir in Morocco failed to arrive at an agreement to end commercial whaling.
Dilip Kumar, inspector general of forests, wildlife, ministry of environment & forests, expressed regret that no firm decision had been arrived at by the 88 member states especially since 1,200 whales are being hunted every year.

A foreign tourist checking-in a hotel in the country is now likely to be informed about the local customs, beliefs and laws, besides the places to be visited. He or she will also be advised on what to wear and how. Further, the owners of hotels, guest houses, lodges, motels and other service providers will have to ensure that their premises or services were not used for sex tourism, child pornography, child sexual abuse and substance abuse, besides other crimes like trafficking and soliciting.

Union minister for social justice and empowerment, Mukul Wasnik, has said that it needs to be found out why people are sliding into beggary despite the large number of government schemes that exist for those belonging to the vulnerable sections of society.

As the differences among the member ministers continued, the GoM, headed by finance minister Pranab Mukherjee, on caste census, which met here on Thursday failed to arrive at a decision. Since the ministers felt that more discussion is required before deciding to include caste as an enumeration in the ongoing Census process, it

The tussle to control legal education in the country continues. At a meeting of the legal round table, convened by the Union human resource development ministry, decided to establish a separate university for legal education. The proposed university will be part of 14 world class innovation universities and will promote research and higher studies in legal affairs.

Hitting out at the bureaucracy, minister of state for health Dinesh Trivedi on Thursday held it responsible for “red-tapism” in the ministry and said he felt absence of support system for implementing projects.

The National Advisory Council headed by Sonia Gandhi hotly debated the universalisation of entitlement with some of the members opposing the proposal on Thursday.
While the majority were in favour of the idea, some of the members cited arranging adequate supply of foodgrains and managing huge finances as implementation b

The Supreme Court on Thursday dismissed the pre-arrest bail plea of former Goa tourism minister Francisco Mickey Pacheco, facing the charges of culpable homicide in the case related to the mysterious death of one of his woman friend.

Even as Sonia Gandhi-led National Advisory Council (NAC) started discussing the Communal Violence (Prevention, Control and Rehabilitation of Victims) Bill, civil society groups expressed hope their concerns would be addressed now.