A projected delay in the rains over the Hindi heartland including UP, Bihar, Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand, is giving jitters to the farm ministry, which is trying to increase output in these low-productivity states. To top it, defunct water resources in these areas are compounding the problem. The resultant water scarcity is affecting the preparation of paddy nurseries this in turn is likely to delay shifting of saplings into the main fields in the month of August.

The central investigating agencies, including CBI and the National Investigating Agency (NIA), are probing the alleged terror links of a high ranking official of the Assam government, detained by the security agencies.

The government is preparing to hold talks with the banned outfit Ulfa, and the modalities to initiate the dialogue are expected to be finalised soon. Following consecutive meetings with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and home minister P. Chidambaram in the city, Assam chief minister Tarun Gogoi on Wednesday said, “Majority of Ulfa

The Indian embassy in Kyrgyzstan has offered to buy tickets for those Indian nationals who may be facing temporary financial difficulty due to their hurried evacuation from the violence-hit Kyrgyz towns of Osh and Jalalabad to the capital Bishkek.

India and South Korea will discuss civilian nuclear energy cooperation when they hold the sixth joint commission meeting in Seoul on Friday.
“Civil nuclear cooperation will be discussed during the meeting. We do not know it what direction it would go, but we will have something for the press at the end of the meeting,” said Gautam Bambawale, joint secretary (east asia) in the external affairs ministry, in a news conference here on Wednesday.

An angry and upset India is all set to battle it out to ensure the historic Matheran light hill railway, built between 1901 and 1907, in Maharashtra is granted world heritage site status by Unesco.

The CPI(M) has said that the verdict in the Bhopal gas tragedy is of “direct relevance” to the Nuclear Liability Bill and maintained that the bill “bears the handiwork of the US nuclear industry lobby”.

The Indian armed forces on Wednesday released two crucial doctrines, including one that reportedly deals with media management in a conflict situation as well as dissemination of information intended to remove ill-will among the populace in insurgency-hit areas besides other aspects.

With controversy over former Union Carbide CEO Warren Anderson’s exit from India after the Bhopal gas tragedy continued to hog the limelight, the Congress on Wednesday said the escape could have happened due to a “systemic failure”.

With the reconstituted Group of Ministers (GoM) on the Bhopal gas tragedy meeting on Friday, CBI director Ashwani Kumar is reportedly preparing his reply to questions expected to be raised at the meeting.