Plans Rs 40-cr resort in Gujarat Engineering products and services major Elecon Group has diversified into hospitality business and is looking at shipping, ports and SEZs as its next destinations. The NRI-rich Kheda district and adjoining areas in Charotar region of central Gujarat is all set to get its first luxurious resort with five-star facilities by mid-2008. The resort has been developed by Elecon in a 15-acre area at a cost of Rs 40 crore to tap the huge potential in hospitality business due to large number of non-resident Gujaratis (NRGs) visiting their native places each year.

Atomic point: Dr Anil Kakodkar, Chairman, Atomic Energy Commission and Secretary, Department of Atomic Energy (right), and Dr Anjan Chaki, Director, AMD, at a meeting in Hyderabad on Wednesday.

The small car meets the aspirations of the consumer but may just compound the problems for the society he lives in. V.V. DESAI shows how.

Suddenly, climate change is hogging the news. Dire disasters are being foretold. There are lurid accounts of widespread devastation and displacement of millions of people, especially in low elevation coastal areas, resulting from global warming and the rise in sea levels.

India clearly had a head-start over China in the wind energy sector. But given the pace at which things are moving in the two countries, it is just a matter of time before China overtakes India in the total installed capacity and net annual additions. N. Ramakrishnan Advertisement

To lift Indian agriculture from its present moribund state the agricultural marketing and extension systems must be reformed immediately. Also needed are a policy to prevent fragmentation of land holdings and a farmer-friendly exit policy. There has been, as early as 1929, only one real issue in Indian agriculture. It has been a non-paying vocation. The American Civil War sucked Indian cotton into the world market. Since then, Indian agriculture has become marginalised.

Deepak Fertilisers and Petrochemicals Corporation Ltd (DFPCL) has launched a clean development mechanism (CDM) project at its manufacturing plant in Taloja. The project will address concerns on global warming, by reducing green house gas emission. The project will be implemented within six months. - Our Bureau

Total global acreage increases to 114.3 m hectares New Delhi, Feb. 18 India has the fifth largest area cultivated under genetically modified (GM) crops. According to worldwide data compiled by the International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-Biotech Applications (ISAAA), the total acreage planted under all GM crops amounted to 114.3 million hectares (mh) in 2007. Of this, over half or 57.7 mh was accounted for by the US, followed by Argentina (19.1 mh), Brazil (15 mh), Canada (seven mh), and India (6.2 mh).

As it hurts agricultural productivity and environment, climate change could also have an adverse impact on the quality of life of farmers and tourism industry, particularly in the developing countries. Climate change will have a telling impact on the farmers. It will be harder for them to carry on in the increased temperatures, Mr M.V.K. Sivakumar, Chief of Agricultural Meteorology Division, WMO (World Meteorological Organisation), told Business Line. Recognising this, the WMO and UN Habitat (the UN body on human settlements) have started working to address this issue, he said.

The Annual Plan of Chhattisgarh for 2008-09 has been pegged at Rs 9,600 crore, inclusive of additional Central assistance of Rs 50 crore for establishing and strengthening of infrastructure for collec