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
The government is planning to issue an advisory to drug companies if they do not pass on the excise duty benefit to the consumer. The advisory may be in the form of guidelines issued to companies that they must reduce drug prices by 4-5%, taking into account the Budget proposals. Significantly, the guidelines would cover the entire industry, including the non-scheduled drugs (outside government control). The Budget has slashed excise duty on drugs from 16% to 8%, while the Cenvat has gone down by 2% to 14%. The abatement available on maximum retail price on payment of excise duty on medicines has been reduced from 42.5% to 35.5%. Prices of medicines, including the 74 scheduled drugs, under DPCO (drug price control order) 1995 should go down by 4-5%, according to the initial estimates worked out by the government. "We can ask the industry to reduce prices as there is lack of clarity amongst the drug companies on the exact quantum of decrease,' sources said. This is one of the options being considered by the government. It may also try to meet the industry associations before issuing some sort of a directive on the prices. However, a final view on the matter will be taken by the chemicals minister, Ram Vilas Paswan over the next few days. Paswan has already expressed hope after the Budget that all drug producers will pass on the excise duty benefit to the consumer. Drug regulator, NPPA is also working out the exact reduction in the prices of scheduled drugs, and is expected to issue the notification soon. Drug companies are still working out the net impact of the excise duty reduction. Some companies including Zydus Cadila have revised prices of scheduled medicines with effect from March 1. Ranbaxy said most of its drugs are manufactured in the excise-free zones, so there would be no impact of Budget proposals.
A rare and threatened species of tiny frog has been found breeding in a New Zealand animal park, meaning its future may now be more secure, researchers said. The 13 finger nail-sized Maud Island froglets were discovered clinging to the backs of male frogs at the Karori wildlife sanctuary in Wellington, said researcher Kerri Lukis. The frogs are found only on two islands in New Zealand's South Island. "Maud Island frogs have never been found breeding' before, even on their home island.
New York: Scientists claim to have built a supercomputer which has confirmed the Standard Model theory of the Universe to even greater precision than before. The 30-year-old theory encapsulates understanding of all the material that makes up the universe. However, it excludes the force of gravity which is the missing piece in the jigsaw that would extend the Model into a complete theory. The project's enormously complex calculations relate to the behaviour of tiny particles found in the nuclei of atoms, known as quarks. In order to carry out these calculations, the researchers first designed and built a supercomputer that was among the fastest in the world, capable of tens of trillions of calculations per second. The computations themselves have taken a further three years to complete. The results have revealed that the Standard Model's claim to be the best theory invented holds firm. It raises the stakes for the riddle to be solved by experiments to be conducted later this year. "Modern supercomputers and improved theoretical techniques are allowing us to explore the limits of the Standard Model to an unprecedented precision. "The next stage will be to combine such computations with new experimental results expected from the Large Hadron Collider to unravel the next level of fundamental physics,' lead scientist professor Chris Sachrajda of the University of Southampton was quoted by the ScienceDaily as saying. Added co-researcher professor Richard Kenway: "Although the Standard Model has been a fantastic success, there were one or two dark corners where experiments had been inconclusive as vital calculations were not accurate enough. We shone a light on one of these, but nothing was lurking there.' PTI
London: Is frog the answer to diabetes? "Yes', if researchers are to be believed. A joint team of experts from the University of Ulster in Northern Ireland and United Arab Emirates University has discovered that a substance on the skin of South American "paradoxical frog' boosts the production of insulin
The nuclear pact is about ending India's isolation. Why oppose it? External affairs minister Pranab Mukherjee's statement in Parliament on Monday is a match report on the negotiations between the government and the IAEA as well as a clarification of the government's view of the nuclear deal for the benefit of its allies and the Opposition. He stressed three points. One, talks on an India-specific safeguards agreement with the IAEA are about to be concluded and a happy conclusion would enable the Nuclear Suppliers Group to amend its guidelines and facilitate nuclear trade among member countries and New Delhi. Two, Indo-US civil nuclear commerce will be guided by the bilateral agreement, not by the Hyde Act. Three, the government will try to achieve a broad political consensus on the issue. Mukherjee's statement has come in the wake of a lot of chatter that the Indo-US nuclear deal is as good as dead. That is because there is no sign yet of the consensus that the government is seeking on the issue. The BJP sees the nuclear deal as a political issue to confront the UPA government and nothing else. The Left is blinded by a dead ideology and sees a red herring in improved relations with the US out of fear of
Pranab Aims To Take IAEA Safeguards Pact To US The ides of March may be India's internal deadline for completing the IAEA safeguards agreement on its civilian nuclear facilities. This has reportedly been decided by the government, after the MEA-DAE team returned from Vienna on Sunday with what appears to be the final draft of the agreement. The government's legal brains will now go through the agreement to see if India can "live with' it. This exercise, sources said, should be completed by the middle of this month. The completed Indian safeguards agreement is expected to dovetail into foreign minister Pranab Mukherjee's maiden visit (as foreign minister) to Washington on March 23-25, where he is expected to present this to his counterpart Condoleezza Rice. Politically, sources said, it would make sense for Mukherjee to go to Washington with a concrete document in hand, rather than open himself up to a host of diplomatic harangue. Sources indicated that the crucial UPA-Left meeting will probably be scheduled after his return and after the CPM's party congress scheduled for March 29. This remains the imponderable because it's not yet clear whether the government will take the agreement beyond the Left's veto
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The water crisis that has been plaguing the Capital since last Friday is threatening to get worse. Several parts of north, northwest Delhi and NDMC areas have been getting a highly erratic supply and authorities see no respite from the situation till the end of this week at least. The matter has been taken to the Upper Yamuna River Board and chief minister Sheila Dikshit will take up the issue with authorities concerned if the situation doesn't improve soon. The 120 million gallon per day (MGD) Wazirabad plant and the 90 MGD Chandrawal plant are working to only about 70% of their capacity as Haryana, claim Delhi Jal Board officials, has reduced supply to the Capital from 300 MGD to about 250 MGD.
Despite much talk of Delhi making the transition from
The health ministry is planning an emergency mop-up operation that will vaccinate three lakh children living in and around Kirti Nagar against polio to contain further spread of the deadly P1 strain of the virus in Delhi. The decision was taken after the country's first PI strain of wild polio virus sprung up this year from Darbangia Colony in Kirti Nagar. Since this is the first P1 polio case in Delhi after August 2006, which had made officials declare the city free of the virus last year, shocked state polio eradication experts have now identified 2,500 high risk clusters, mostly occupied by migrants from Uttar Pradesh and Bihar
