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.

Leh, Dec 22 : The Chief Executive Councilor, LAHDC, Leh Rigzin Spalbar today convened a meeting of Council to discuss various important issues concerning further promotion of tourism industry. Addressing the meeting, the Chief Executive Councilor, said that this year a record number of tourists visited Leh and if we include the number of labourers who came to Leh during the same period, more than 2 lakh people arrived Leh which ultimately put immense pressure on our resources and adversely affected the fragile environment of Ladakh.

NEW DELHI, Aug 25: Based on detailed analysis of weather data of last five years in Leh, Ladakh, scientists have attributed the recent cloudburst in the region to prolonged winters which may be due to climate change.

India may finally have an answer to China's rail link to Tibet. Inspired by the rail link to Lhasa in their backyard, the Himachal Pradesh government is now planning one right through Manali into Leh. The state's Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal has written to the PMO to help develop the virtually non-existent rail infrastructure in the strategically important state and has suggested that a broad gauge rail link be created right up to Leh and Ladakh.

The decision by Jammu and Kashmir's Leh district to declare the Changthang region a highaltitude wildlife sanctuary has put Ladakh's Changpa nomads in a fix. The nomads have, for long, been using

a study claims the maximum temperature over the northwestern Himalayas is increasing at a much faster rate than the minimum temperature. Another study claims it is just the opposite for most of the