No fresh taxes except on tobacco products y VAT on cooking gas, fertilisers goes y Sops for IT, science,

Finance Minister Abdul Rahim Rather today presented a "zero deficit" budget for 2012-13. Except proposing a hike on tobacco products and liquor, the Finance Minister announced various sops for the common man in the Rs 33,853-crore annual budget. He also projected the state’s economic growth at 7.5 per cent for next fiscal.

Urbanisation, influx of pilgrims, fertilizer-intensive farming, and indiscriminate sand-mining have impacted on the water quality of Manimala river, a major source of drinking water in Kottayam and Pathanamthitta districts.

A report published in Environmental Monitoring and Assessment, an international journal devoted to progress in the use of monitoring data in assessing environmental risks to man and environment, highlights the deterioration in water quality caused by human intervention, especially in the upper reaches of the Manimala river.

In order to prevent the attack of yellow rust in wheat, farmers in Haryana have for the first time taken to new yellow rust-resistant varieties. Bidding adieu to earlier varieties that were highly susceptible to yellow rust, farmers this time have adopted new varieties like PBW 621 and HD 2967. Officials in the Haryana Agriculture Department informed The Tribune that major transformation had been seen in Panchkula, Ambala, Yamunanagar, Karnal, Kurukshetra, Kaithal and Panipat districts .

The spores survived and germinated after being exposed to 115 degree C for two hours

Can the mesophilic fungal spores that normally grow at 20 degree C to 35 degree C survive higher temperatures and still be able to germinate when the conditions are right? Believe it or not, laboratory studies have shown that some species of mesophilic spores can indeed survive even when exposed to 115 degree C for two hours! The duration of survival was longer at lower temperatures.

The government today dispatched teams of the Horticulture Department to assess the widespread damage caused by the intense fury of the hailstorm over the past two days in the entire apple belt of Shimla and parts of Kinnaur with the estimated damage to the apple crop already touching Rs 248 crore.

A strong hailstorm last evening caused major damage to the apple crop in most areas of Shimla dist

LUCKNOW: The production of pulses in the country has been hit by a pest called pod borer. The common pest which attacks all pulses, chick pea, pigeon pea, gram, groundnut and lentils is a cause of worry for farmers in several states.

Jorhat, Jan. 13: In what may be termed as a path-breaking find, a team of researchers from the Rain Forest Research Institute (RFRI) here, led by Rajib Kumar Borah, claimed to have pinpointed the fungus which causes formation of agarwood, and ultimately, agar oil, used widely in the multi-million dollar global perfume industry.

Director of the institute, N.K.

The Bhopal gas tragedy was the worst industrial disaster in human history. Twenty-five thousand people died, 500,000 were injured, and the injustice done to the victims of Bhopal over the past 25 years will go down as the worst case of jurisprudence ever.