Turkmenistan intends to create a huge lake in the desert by filling a natural depression with drainage water. Critics say it's a bad idea that could even spark a war.

As part of its nature capital approach to development, Asom Government is contemplating on estimating the total value of its natural resources like crop land, water, forest, mineral, hillocks, rivers etc to ensure sustainable development so that the economy of the State can be given a fillip through proper implementation of "naturenomics'.

After scripting a turnaround in the fortunes of the Indian Railways, union minister Lalu Prasad has now envisioned the prospect of utilising surplus water from various rivers using large pipes for the country's 24,000-km railway tracks. "The railways is like an empire, it is a league apart, its vast network criss-crossing across the country can help the government in water management," said the minister, who was in Malaysia to witness the signing of a railway double track contract awarded to public sector company IRCON by the Malaysian government.

In the district of Sirsa in Haryana, wage rates have increased appreciably after the nregs started being implemented there. Being a cotton-producing district, the daily wage for cotton-picking workers was around Rs85 when the scheme was launched. While the scheme offered Rs95, workers shifted to projects run under the scheme.

The government has extended watercourses improvement project for further two years under the National Programme for Improvement of Watercourses to cop up the agricultural production. Punjab Minister for Agriculture, Ahmad Ali Aulakh chairing a meeting at the Agriculture House on Thursday said that the previous government had set aside more than Rs 28 million to complete 30,000 watercourses in the Punjab, including canal commend areas and rain fed tract.

In recent years, scarcity and pollution of water have become the paramount environmental woe in China. Numerous reports and books have exposed China's water crisis, depicting a nation suffering in the face of black-running rivers and dried-up waterways. Nationwide, the per capita availability of fresh water is only one-quarter of the world average.

Punjab Minister for Agriculture, Ahmad Ali Aulakh has said that more than Rs 3.8 billion will be spent on agriculture in 2008-09. "Out of the proposed allocation of Rs 3.8 billion for annual development programme, Rs 2 billion will be provided for the ongoing projects under different wings of the Agriculture Department and about Rs 1.8 billion will be allocated for new projects to be selected on merit to achieve the desired development targets," the minister said.

The first India-Africa summit, though late to come, holds a lot of promise in a number of areas.

INDIA, following the example of leading economic powers such as France and China, hosted an India-Africa summit for the first time.

The World Bank will provide technical assistance of $5 million for Project Management and Future Studies under "Water Sector Capacity Building and Advisory Services Project (WCAP), which will support the Pakistan Government, in particular the Ministry of Water and Power (MoWP) with project management.

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