Vistara will stop giving plastic water bottles on board its flights, in a bid to reduce plastic usage. The airline, which had earlier banned chewing of gutka on its flights, on Wednesday said it “plans
Economic think tank NCAER on Tuesday forecasted the Indian economy to grow by 8.5 to 8.9% during 2008-09, despite a slowdown in global economic growth and rising commodity prices. "While the GDP growth in the base case is projected to be 8.5%, in the more comprehensive case, GDP growth is projected at 8.9%,' the latest quarterly review of the economy by NCAER said. The short-term prospects are less attractive than a year earlier despite the fundamentals of growth remaining intact, it said.
Construction of National Highway Development Project (NHDP) could come to a halt in three months if adequate steps are not taken by the government to address problems caused by the rising prices of inputs like steel and cement, the highway builders warned. "In three months, if nothing is done National Highway Builders Federation (NHBF) will have to stop construction work,' said coordinator of NHBF V C Verma after a meeting of the federation members with PM Manmohan Singh on Tuesday.
: Japanese automaker Nissan is all set to kick off fresh competition in India as it plans six new launches by 2012, including a hatchback car in the volume segment and commercial vehicles. The small car will be produced at its upcoming Chennai factory, slated to start production by 2010, a senior company official said. While Nissan will source Maruti-Suzuki's yet-to-belaunched compact
Out Of 2 Lakh Population, 10,000 Killed Yangon: The cyclone that hit Myanmar at the weekend destroyed 95% of the homes in the city of Bogalay, where more than 10,000 people died, the minister for social welfare told reporters on Tuesday. Most of the 1,90,000 residents of Bogalay were homeless after the storm swept through the Irrawaddy river delta in the early hours of Saturday, Maung Maung Swe told a press conference.
A simple gum swab in place of an invasive blood test can now tell whether you are HIV positive. What's even better, the test results will be out in just 10-20 minutes. In a breakthrough that could replace the present day HIV antibody test through blood taken from the finger or the arm, a team of Indo-Canadian scientists has successfully tested the world's first salivabased HIV test, with an accuracy rate of nearly 100%.
Children who are breastfed after birth are smarter than those who aren't. According to the world's largest study on lactation and intelligence, that followed 17,046 children for six and a half years from birth, children whose mothers exclusively breastfed them during the first year of life had consistently higher IQ and an improved cognitive (thinking, learning and memory) development.
Failing to make much headway in its talks on the India-US nuclear deal, the UPA-Left committee on the pact has decided to undertake another round of negotiations on May 28 even as it becomes increasingly clear that time is running out as the tenure of the Bush administration comes to an end. The government indicated to the the Left parties that the nuclear deal was being squeezed for time and foreign minister Pranab Mukherjee told them during the eighth meeting of the committee that problems were only going to grow in the coming days.
Missile Designed To Hit Targets In Range Of 3,500km In a move to somewhat bridge the stark strategic imbalance with China in terms of nuclear and missile arsenals, India is all set to test its most ambitious missile Agni-III on Wednesday. The countdown for the launch of Agni-III, designed to hit high-value targets deep inside China with a strike range of 3,500-km, has begun at the integrated test range on Wheeler Island off the coast of Orissa.
India is despatching more assistance to cyclonehit Myanmar in the form of two AN-32 aircraft carrying relief and medical supplies. India had earlier sent two ships carrying food and other relief items to Yangon on Monday. The ministry of external affairs said on Tuesday that all possible help has been offered to the country which was hit by cyclone
The US favours higher standards of living in developing countries, the White House said on Monday, while sticking to its proposition that increased demand for food in these countries is the principle driver of higher prices across the world.
