India's first genetically engineered (GE) drought-resistant rice variety has been developed in the eastern Indian city of Kolkata.

Developers dejected as govt rules out repeal of Urban Land Ceiling Act

The promise of Ma, Mati, Manush governance by Mamata Banerjee may fall short of the second M-word, meaning land — at least for real estate developers in the state’s capital city. For, the West Bengal government has now decided to bring in an amendment to the Urban Land (Ceiling and Regulation) Act (ULCA), 1976, an eyesore of developers for quite some time.

Tremors were felt along India’s entire eastern coast after a powerful 8.6 magnitude earthquake and a series of strong aftershocks struck off the northern tip of Indonesia’s Sumatra Wednesday afternoon, triggering fears of a devastating 2004-type tsunami across the Indian Ocean region.

Indonesia said it was checking for damage and casualties, but remarkably no such reports were received for several hours, including in Aceh, the closest province and the area decimated by the disaster eight years ago.

U.N. report says China, India together will account for about third of the increase in urban population in coming decades

India will witness the largest increase in urban population in the next four decades followed by China, a United Nations report has said. India will add another 497 million to its urban population between 2010 and 2050, while China will see 341 million people shifting into cities, followed by Nigeria (200 million), the United States (103 million) and Indonesia (92 million), according to the U.N.'s ‘2011 Revision of the World Urbanisation Prospects' report released on Friday.

Life in India’s IT capital comes at a premium.

* Nominal increase in rail fares after 9 years; Fair up by 5 paise per kilo metre in sleeper class. * For express trains, hike of 3 paise per kilometre.
* 10 to 20 paise hike in tickets fares. * Better SMS-based booking. * 75 new passenger trains. * Platform ticket to cost Rs. five.

* Introduction of alternate train accommodation system to accommodate wait listed passengers.

Three more cities are switching over to Bharat Stage (BS)-4 emission norms from Thursday. These cities are Ankaleshwar in Gujarat, Hisar in Haryana and Bharatpur in Rajasthan.

Already 13 cities, including Delhi NCR, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad, Pune, Surat, Kanpur, Agra, Lucknow and Solapur are implementing the BS-4 emission norms from 2010 when the national auto fuel policy was announced.

KOLKATA, 28 FEB: Some of the flora over portions of the 273 acres of Acharya Jagadish Chandra Bose Botanical Gardens are not getting their share of underground water.

The Ministry of Environment and Forests has ordered another study on the impact of electromagnetic radiation from cell phone towers on avian population.

State food and supplies minister Jyotipriya Mullick today said the substandard iron-ore supplied in the Rs 139-crore scam in the state-owned Essential Commodities Supply Corporation in connection w