April 9: The Prabhadevi showroom of Tata Motors in Mumbai had some surprise applicants like Mr Maruti Bhandari, who said he was a cobbler.
In Chandigarh, there was a cycle rickshaw driver, who came in to apply for a Nano. The Tata spokesperson, Mr Debasis Ray, said it would not be possible to collate all the figures of the first day immediately. Booking closes on April 25.

April 9: The district medical and health authorities have alerted people in the city to take precautionary measures against anthrax.
This warning was given in the wake of three deaths suspected to be caused by cutaneous anthrax in Visakhapatnam and confirmed incidence of the disease in Prakasam, Srikakulam, Chittoor, Kurnool and Mahbubnagar districts.

Depression in agriculture and farmer suicides continue, thanks to the misguided actions of Indian policymakers.

AS the outstanding Marxist economist Paul Baran had pointed out in The Political Economy of Growth, what is cooked in the kitchen is not decided in the kitchen. Similarly, what happens to agricultural producers is decided outside agriculture by public policy.

The present government and the ones before it have neglected the health sector, as the National Family Health Surveys show.

WHAT is the state of the nation

April 7: Three more persons were arrested by sleuths of the forest department on Tuesday for killing a tiger in Narsampet reserve forest area in Khammam district. Three others had been arrested earlier.
The trio arrested on Tuesday confessed that they had skinned the tiger after trapping and killing it. The aim was to make a neat profit by selling the skin and claws.

April 6: Land sharks have encroached into the Ramakrishnapuram lake near Neredmet from all the sides. This lake is the habitat of a variety of birds and tortoises.
Several buildings have come up near the lake situated beside the flyover.
Moreover, tortoises from the lake are caught in the lake and sold by the poachers.

Ragpicking, one would assume, is the last area a corporate would want to foray into. But for ITC, which had in the past entered unorganised businesses such as manufacturing match sticks and incense sticks, it is a potential gold mine. Consider this: for 80 per cent of the 630 paper mills in India, waste paper is a key raw material.

Gujarat State Petroleum Corporation (GSPC), a Gujarat government- owned company, has made huge discovery of gas in the KG-21 well located on the western side of Deendayal West block at Krishna Godavari Basin off the Andhra Pradesh coast, official sources said.

India to save $9 billion in import bill

Staff Reporter

Expects its profit share in the block at $14 billion.
BS Reporter / Mumbai April 3, 2009, 0:59 IST

Mukesh AmbaniAfter over six years of bagging the KG-D6 block in the Krishna Godavari basin during the first round of the New Exploration and Licensing Policy (Nelp), Reliance Industries (RIL) commenced gas production from the block on Thursday.