Mumbai, July 16 MMRDA is waiting for Railways to finalise Churchgate-Virar elevated tracks proposal After a series of flip-flops on how to go about the first phase of the Metro rail in the city, the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) has now put the third route, to run from Colaba to Bandra, on hold indefinitely. The reason: The route would duplicate the proposed elevated railway along the existing Churchgate-Virar line.

The poor monsoon in Maharashtra, the country's second largest soybean growing state, has forced farmers to resow the crop, and raised concerns over prospects of a record oilseed output, traders and industry officials said. Farmers will have to resow soybean in 20-25 per cent of total covered area in Maharashtra because of irregular showers, said Ajay Balotia, a Nagpur-based soybean trader. "The (soybean) seeds sown have dried up due to lack of water," said another Nagpur-based trader.

India is losing its budding scientists to other professions. Latest figures show that few students are taking up pure sciences, despite government's effort and incentives to make science more popular. A latest study, commissioned by Department of Science and Technology revealed that while percentage of students taking up pure sciences remains static at 21, there is an increase of 17 per cent in job opportunities in the field.

The chinkara hunting case in Pune that eventually led to the resignation of Maharashtra's Transport Minister Dharmaraobaba Atram, has brought to the fore worrisome aspects of wildlife governance in the country. With the kind of evidence that has surfaced over the past few days, the plot seems to have thickened for Atram.

Insufficient rain in the central, southern and western parts of the country could hit kharif crop, a leading economist has said. "Kharif crops received insufficient rain in prominent cropping zones like Assam, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu. Going forward, the southern states and central India may witness low rain hampering the growth of Kharif crops further,' NCDEX economist Shraddha Umarji said here.

Pune July 14 The Pune Municipal Corporation called it a dream project. And the Rs 19,000 crore comprehensive mobility plan (CMP), meant to be the one-stop solution to all traffic problems that plague the city, may justify the label, say traffic experts who have been keeping track of the city traffic issues for long. Transport expert Sujit Patwardhan said while the plan has a vision, the fear of many of the components remaining merely a vision was the clause that has been added that in the interim, flyovers would be constructed.

Maharashtra to introduce biometric cards, computerize PDS the Maharashtra government has decided to introduce biometric ration cards across the state to check corruption in the public distribution system (pds). Biometric cards will first be introduced in Mumbai and Pune in a year. The government will soon sign a contract with Mumbai-based Spanco Telesystems for issuing over 22 million

Maharashtra farmers block Mumbai-Goa highway thousands of farmers from 22 villages in Pen taluka of Maharashtra