New Delhi: Kicking-off work on the long discussed US-backed Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India gas pipeline, India and its new energy partners on Wednesday signed agreements that will pave way for laying of the 1,680-km line. Turkmenistan — which holds more than 4% of the world’s natural gas reserves signed agreements to sell gas to India and Pakistan through the $ 7.6 billion pipeline at the Caspian Sea resort of Avaza.

New Delhi: Finance minister Pranab Mukherjee on Wednesday laid the onus of the petrol price hike on oil marketers. “The decision has been taken. Petrol is a deregulated commodity,” he said. The government had freed petrol prices in June 2010 when crude came down to around $40 a barrel from a historic high of $147 per barrel in July 2008. But in practice, oil companies do not move without a signal from the parent oil ministry which officially continues to deny any control.

Mamata’s Intractable Opposition Nixes Efforts For A Pact. Bangladesh could be ready to revisit the Teesta water treaty’s terms as the ruling Awami League faces growing political heat but Trinamool chief Mamata Banerjee’s intractable opposition is stalemating all efforts to ink the pact.

New Delhi: After missing several deadlines, the New Delhi Municipal Council’s multilevel parking lot at Baba Kharak Singh (BKS) Marg was opened to public on Tuesday evening. During the trial run, DLF— the private concessionaire responsible for the construction and operation of the parking lot — has decided to provide parking free of cost. The parking was made operational after NDMC gave the completion certificate on Monday.

New Delhi: By the time you read this, the price of petrol would have gone up by more than Rs 7.50 a litre across the country. The increase, the steepest-ever, came a day after Parliament’s Budget session ended and PM Manmohan Singh talked about the need for “difficult decisions”. After adding state taxes, petrol will cost Rs 73.18 a litre in Delhi, Rs 78.57 in Mumbai, Rs 77.88 in Kolkata and Rs 77.53 a litre in Chennai. This marks an increase of around 10% and puts a squeeze of about Rs 6,000 a year on a family that spends an average of Rs 5,000 per month on petrol.

LUCKNOW: The growing number of farmer suicides and water scarcity in Bundelkhand region is set to figure prominently in the coming session of national executive meeting of the BJP scheduled to be held on May 24 and May 25. Speaking to TOI, former BJP president Rajnath Singh, said, "Things for the most neglected, but much politicised region continue to be as worrisome as they were during the BSP rule and despite all assurances of changing the fate of Bundelas, Samajwadi Party is proving to be equally indifferent to their plight."

Around the same time when Mohammad Yunus and his Grameen Bank were writing their Nobel story of rural empowerment, a woman in the humble districts of south Bengal started a micro-credit scheme similar to that of the Bangladeshi icon who was feted with the Peace prize in 2006. Madhuri Ghosh hadn’t heard of Yunus or his work when she formed the Bagnan I Mahila Bikash Co-operative Credit Society Ltd in 1997, but her feat is no less inspiring.

The UPA II government on Tuesday showcased several initiatives that have helped in sustaining the environment during its three-year rule despite the fact that delay in environmental approvals have hurt project implementation and overall industrial growth. The report to the people outlined the major steps taken to preserve the environment. It talked about the National Action Plan on Climate Change, forest conservation, mission clean Ganga, the setting up of the National Green Tribunal and tiger conservation.

New Delhi: A part revival of the agricultural sector and the gamble to invest in the sofar ignored eastern states paying off has not brought the kind of gains UPA would have hoped for while entering the fourth year of its second term. Divergence within the government on how to deal with food and agriculture-related issues saw the UPA frittering away the gains of three consecutive good agricultural years which now portend a record harvest of 75 million tonnes.

New Delhi: Continuing uncertainty over the fate of numerous parking projects has become a cause of concern for not only vehicle users but also the city’s planners. While there are plans to raise parking fees in the city, only one of the 41 multi-level parking projects conceived by the erstwhile Municipal Corporation of Delhi has been made operational so far, and work on 24 is yet to start.