-The Times of India Wildlife experts and enthusiasts from around the world will congregate in the air-conditioned environs of Mahatma Mandir in Gandhinagar as part of the Global Bird Watcher's Conference on January 19. But it would make more sense if they met in the marshlands of Kutch and surrounding areas, which have become a graveyard of some of the most endangered winged species in the country - flamingos. Conservation activists have...

The move to set aside 4.5% share for minorities, including Muslims, within an existing affirmative-action system for other backward classes (OBCs) is legally sound, Rajya Sabha deputy chairperson K Rahman Khan has said. Rahman Khan, whose “reservation” model for Muslims in Karnataka served as a model reference point for the government’s decision, however said declaring the entire community backward based on Sachar's findings alone, as demanded by many Muslims, was not...

-GK News Network Government has proposed a Rs 2000 crore labour budget under MG NREGA for the coming fiscal year. This was revealed at a high level meeting convened under the chairmanship of Minister for Rural Development and Panchayati Raj, Ali Muhammad Sagar here today. Commissioner Secretary Rural Development, Farooq Ahmad Peer, Director Rural Development Jammu, Shafiq Ahmad Raina, Member Secretary MG NREGA, Dr Hanief Balkhi and other senior officers of the department...

-The Telegraph   Dispur this evening formally invited the anti-dam groups for talks on January 5 while issuing a separate public appeal asking them to withdraw their blockade of supplies to the Lower Subansiri hydel project, in a bid to end the standoff that began on December 16. CMO sources said home secretary G.D. Tripathi this evening issued the formal letters to Lakhimpur-based groups through the district administration and to the Guwahati-based organisations...

-Express News Service   The Delhi Government served a show cause notice to the Bonded Labour Liberation Front, an NGO run by activist Swami Agnivesh, for the alleged fudging of bills with respect to a grant of Rs 18 lakh given by the government to the NGO. The notice has asked the organisation to return Rs 2.23 lakh of the grant which was given in 2005 to conduct a survey on bonded...