Rapid expansion to be the organisation's mantra for 2013-14, says Chairman

Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation (GCMMF), which markets the famed ‘Amul’ brand of milk and milk products, aims to get into 700 small towns for the first time this financial year. And, double its export. Vipul Chaudhary, chairman of GCMMF, said: “Rapid expansion will be the mantra for 2013-14.”

A team of scientists from Banaras Hindu University (BHU) will carry out a comprehensive study of the status of the groundwater table in the area between Gomti and Sai rivers across six districts of

Lucknow: Famous Urdu poet Mirza Ghalib had once said, “A a m k h o o b h o a u r m e e t h e h o,” (mango must be in plenty and sweet) after having tasted Lucknow’s famous Dusseheri variety of mango. However, this time the king of fruit is likely to lose on both counts – volume and sweetness.

The blame for this goes to the increasingly unpredictable weather pattern and climate change that have taken a toll on the mango crop in the state this year. Adding to this are the brick kilns that have also played a wicked role as far as the mango crop is concerned. There is uncertainty over the yield and horticulture experts are predicting a sharp fall in production.

Days after Uttar Pradesh chief minister Akhilesh Yadav announced a mega ‘impetus package’ of more than Rs 3,300 crore for the district, long daily power outages are back in Noida.

Had Proposed To Charge 5.25/Unit After 100 Units

Lucknow: The UP Power Corporation Limited (UPPCL) plans to raise sagging revenue and reserve by hiking power tariff received a setback on Monday when the UP Electricity Regulatory Commission (UPERC) set aside the annual revenue requirement (ARR) submitted by the corporation for the financial year 2013-14 in the absence of audited accounts for financial year 2010-11.

Registration To Start On Feb 4

Lucknow: The UP Housing Development Board has come out with a new housing project in the city after a gap of three years. The proposed ‘Avadh Vihar Yojana’ will come out on either side of the Shaheed Path near Sultanpur Road and spread over an area of 1,524 acre of land between Ansal API’s hi-tech township and Utratia station. It will have 1,400 flats under self-financing scheme and other 1,500 flats for under-privileged -- 750 each for economically weaker section (EWS) and lower income group.

Lucknow: The illegal felling of trees is fast depriving Uttar Pradesh of its precious forest wealth. In 2012-13, trees worth Rs 1.4 crore have been illegally chopped off on the forest land. This is only the "reported" loss of timber and does not include unaccounted cases. On January 18, chief minister Akhilesh Yadav suspended 13 employees of forest department, including officers, for illegal felling of trees in Bahraich division.

Between March and December 2012, at least 40 forest employees were suspended for failing to check illegal cutting of trees. The government has been on a suspension overdrive against forest employees and the recent suspensions have added to the figures. The officers admit that it's for the first time that the lower-rung staff has faced the heat for timber theft in the state.

Telecom operator Bharti Airtel on Sunday said it has installed a 100 kw solar power plant in Lucknow, which would help save 26,000 litres of diesel per year consumed to power its major routing centre.

“Bharti Airtel has installed a solar power plant at Gangaganj, Lucknow. This location is one of the major switching and routing centre, which processes the voice and data traffic for the telecom operator,” it said in a statement.

The mercury remained at sub-zero levels in at least five districts of Uttar Pradesh claiming 16 more lives over the past 24 hours taking the death toll due to the bitter cold to 249.

According to reports from the metrological office, Gorakhpur and Ghazipur clocked -1°C and remained the coldest places in the state followed by Lucknow at -0.7°C.

Food Safety and Standard Authority of India (FSSAI) is planning to replicate the Gujarat model to ensure street food safety in eight cities including Bhubaneshwar, Hyderabad, Delhi, Lucknow, Kolkata among others.

This apart, a senior official of FSSAI said here on Thursday that of the Rs 4,500 crore sanctioned by the Centre under the 12th Five Year Plan, 70 per cent would be given to states to develop infrastructure facilities which includes setting up of food testing laboratories.