The CBI today registered a case against some retired Army officials and bureaucrats of Maharashtra government in connection with the Adarsh housing society scam . The case was registered after the CBI last week received flak from the Bombay High Court for its tardy probe in the case. It was not immediately clear whether the name of former Maharashtra Chief Minister Ashok Chavan figures in the FIR registered at the special designated...

Ministry says there will be no out-of-court settlement Lavasa Corporation has asked for time to consider a solution Final order has been issued for furnishing information The court on Thursday granted six weeks to the Lavasa Corporation Limited (LCL) to submit documents demanded by the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) in its final order passed on January 17. The Ministry has clarified there will be no out-of-court settlement. The Lavasa Corporation issued a...

A leading Indian biochemist has urged the environment and forests ministry to lift the moratorium on Bt brinjal, the country's first genetically modified (GM) food crop developed using a technology supplied by the US multinational seed giant Monsanto. 'The moratorium is not affecting the multinational companies but India's own scientists who are ready with more than a dozen GM crops, including (Vitamin-A rich) golden rice,' said Govindarajan Padmanabhan at the Indian...

Charged particles from beyond solar system possibly affect the pace, but the extent is not clear The role of the cosmic rays has been highlightedin a paper by the former ISRO Chairman, U.R. Rao Dr. Rao points to a nine per cent reduction in the intensity of cosmic rays during the past 150 years The impact of cosmic rays on global warming needs to be assessed. Are charged particles coming from beyond the...

Controversies surrounding the two real estate projects, the Adarsh Society building in Mumbai and the Lavasa city near Pune, bring to the fore the huge costs of poor enforcement of town planning rules and inept administration of urban development. In the case of Adarsh housing, a 31-storeyed apartment building raised in the Backbay reclamation area and meant for Kargil heroes, the Maharashtra government not only turned a blind eye to...