The Congress appears to have decided that the Setu Samudram canal project is too much of a political hot potato to be carried out, as its ally DMK wants it. Party sources confirmed that a view had been taken on the Setu Samudram project, which is also being challenged in the Supreme Court, and the consensus is that an expert committee will be constituted to look into the project, a move clearly aimed at buying time.

Though the ban on the import of Chinese shuttlecocks due to the bird flu scare might have resulted in the cancellation of the National Badminton Championship, scheduled to be held in Goa, it has proved a blessing for the indigenous shuttlecock units, which were on the verge of closure due to competition from Chinese shuttlecocks. The shuttlecock units of the city, which had migrated from Sialkot after independence, had provided employment to a lot of families since then and the highly skilled labour involved in shuttlecock manufacturing in the city earned fame.

The large poultry industry in Punjab appears vulnerable to the bird flu outbreak in a similar way as it began in West Bengal. Talking to reporters here last week, officials of PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) said they had investigated the poultry farms in Ludhiana, Amritsar and Chandigarh in the past few months and found gross negligence on the part of poultry farmers towards the birds.

Leading Indian pharmaceutical companies such as Nicholas Piramal, Orchid Chemicals and Jubilant Organosys, have tied up with foreign companies to leverage technology, talent and cost-benefits to develop new chemical entities (NCE). Zydus Cadila, the latest to join the bandwagon, announced on February 4 a collaboration with Karo Bio of Sweden, an upcoming drug discovery company with expertise in nuclear receptors (a group of specific drug targets), structural biology and drug design. FOREIGN AID

The Centre has a plan to provide electricity on demand by the end of the 11th Five Year Plan, Union Minister for Power Sushilkumar Shinde said today. "However, we have targeted to produce 80,000 Mw in the 11th Five Year Plan, for which Rs 28,000 crore has been earmarked under the Rajiv Gandhi Rural Electrification Scheme (RGRES) compared to Rs 5,000 crore allocated in the last Plan, Shinde told at the concluding session of the two-day 85th Indian National Trade Union Congress (INTUC) here, The 80,000-Mw power production included a 4,000-Mw ultra mega project, he said.

The Indian drug industry, which has proven its strengths in manufacturing cheap generic or off-patent medicines for the global market, may soon find a similar generic opportunity in the molecular diagnostic segment. This is after the patent protection on molecular diagnostics based on PCR (polymerase chain reaction) platform expired globally.

Ironically, converting new land to produce alternative fuels from crops and grasses can cause emissions of carbon dioxide 420 times more than the annual savings from replacing fossil fuels, according to Minnesota-based scientists. Policymakers in the European Union and the US have identified biofuels as a tool to fight global warming, as they emit less greenhouse gases than burning fossil fuels.

Crude oil prices continue to spiral upwards at the slightest inkling of a supply disruption, with most industry experts predicting that prices will only move higher from the current price levels of ar

Narendra Plastic, one of the largest manufacturer and exporter of plastic packaging products in India, plans to invest over Rs 90 crore for setting up two new manufacturing units in Daman and Uttarakh

After billionaire businessmen, it is the turn of companies from India to shine on Forbes radar with as many as 48 firms making it to a list of the world's biggest companies compiled by the US magazi