Aiming at the holistic conservation and restoration of lakes and wetlands to enhance water quality and improve biodiversity, the cabinet Thursday approved a Rs.900 crore scheme for a new integrated

Hyderabad: One-third of schools in rural areas of the state do not have provisions for toilets for girls, while another third has toilets that are either locked or unusable.

This is despite several orders by the Supreme Court over the last two years to ensure provision of toilets in all schools and a deadline of March to comply with. According to the Annual Status of Education Report 2012, only 38 per cent of schools in rural Andhra Pradesh have toilets that can be used by girl students.

Telugu superstar and tourism minister K. Chiranjeevi here on Saturday said that his ministry has set a target of attracting one per cent of world tourists to India in next five years.

Parliament's Standing Committee also proposed the State Food Commissions be vested with powers to check the quality of foodgrains before delivery from the central government.

Special fiscal and incentive packages for industrial growth in North East “have so far failed to trigger major investment flow in the region in the manner it was conceived,” said Paban Singh Ghatowar, minister of Development of North Eastern Region (DoNER). He said in the absence of secondary sector, the growth of North Eastern states during the 11th Plan period was driven just by the primary and tertiary sectors.

“Special fiscal packages under North East Industrial Policy (NEIP) and North East Industrial and Investment Promotion Policy (NEIIPPP) have so far failed to trigger major investment flow in the region in the manner it was conceived.

India will push for increased access of energy companies in Bhutan during the forthcoming visit of the external affairs minister to Bhutan next week.

The move is aimed at countering China that of late has increased its presence in the neighbouring country. Several Indian companies are already present in Bhutan undertaking feasibility studies for Hydel power projects. India is also concerned that presence of Chinese companies especially in the power sector could increase the prospects of such entities making backdoor entry into India's critical infra sector.

Calling for linking the North-east with the National Gas Grid, Chief Minister, Tarun Gogoi today called for a special package to tackle erosion effectively.

SILCHAR: India is a megabiodiversity country and north-east, in particular, is a hotspot of biodiversity in the world being gifted with innumerable water resources in the form of wetlands, lakes and rivers with biodiversity of resources in them. It is also a fact that the depleting water bodies and fish resources along with bioresources are a matter of concern.

In order to dwell deep into the problem, division of wetlands, fishery science and aquaculture in the Department of Life Science and Bioinformatics under the School of Life Sciences, Assam University, Silchar, organized a 2 day international symposium entitled ‘Frontiers of Wetlands, Fisheries and Aquaculture Research in the New Millennium’ recently.

Alarmed by the massive upgrade of infrastructure across the international border in China, India has identified 30 roads of totalling 1837.95 km near North-Eastern border for construction.