Drug resistance seems to have emerged as an endemic problem in India and the Union Health Ministry has written to the Planning Commission asking for a national programme to tackle anti-microbial re

Guwahati: Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission Montek Singh Ahluwalia on Saturday assured the tea planters in Assam that he will take up the issue of declaring tea as India’s national drink with the union ministry of commerce and industry.

Ahluwalia gave the assurance while attending the 75th anniversary celebration of the Assam Tea Planters’ Association (ATPA), the first tea producers’ association formed by Indian tea planters during the pre-independence period.

Would write to Union commerce minister Sharma in this regard

After hitting headlines on lack of toilets and roping in filmstars Vidya Balan and Shah rukh Khan for campaign, Union minister of rural development Jairam Ramesh has got an “assurance” from the Planning Commission for a total allocation of a whopping Rs36,000 crores in the 12th five-year plan for Total Sanitation Campaign, which is now being restructured, against mere Rs7,816 crores in the 11th five-year plan.

Planning Commission is eyeing a power capacity of about 100,000 MW in 5 yrs

The Planning Commission is unlikely to agree to the Power Ministry's proposal of adding only about 76,000 MW electricity generation capacity in the 12th Plan (2012-17) even as the sector battles acute fuel shortage. According to the Approach to the 12th Five-Year Plan, the commission is eyeing a power capacity creation of about 1,00,000 MW in the five years.

The Planning Commission deputy chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia cautioned Chief Minister N. Kiran Kumar Reddy against delay in the execution of Hyderabad Metro Rail project. “The delay in the implementation the project could lead to huge cost over-runs,” Dr Singh told Mr Reddy, when they met on Wednesday to discuss the state plan outlay for fiscal 2012-13.

Fertiliser ministry has sent a proposal to finance ministry for creating a sovereign wealth fund.

Instead of celebrating the fall in poverty numbers, critics within and outside the UPA keep carping

With only about 2,000 Gangetic river dolphins left in India, down from tens of thousands just a few decades ago, the Bihar government is planning to set up Asia's first research centre to strengthen conservation efforts to save the endangered mammal.

An official in the chief minister's office said the Gangetic dolphin research centre would be set up in Patna, where dozens of dolphins can still be seen in the stretch of the river near the state capital.

Admitting that MNREGA has its share of corruption and irregularities, Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh said on Sunday guidelines for the revamped version of the Centre’s flagship rural deve