-The Economic Times KOCHI: A spate of avian flu outbreaks in the last few years has dashed India's hopes of becoming a major egg exporter. Oman, the largest buyer of Indian eggs, has now imposed a second ban on Indian shipments this year following the avian flu incidence in a research farm in Karnataka. The earlier embargo on Indian eggs enforced by Oman in March was only lifted in September. Oman accounts...

-PTI Yet another textbook in a CBSE school has sparked a controversy by allegedly insinuating that non-vegetarians lie, cheat and commit crimes, with the government terming it as "unfortunate" and asking state bodies to remain alert about such content and monitor them. "Sensitivities of communities have to be kept in mind. I think its unfortunate, an occasional aberration happens. But what I would request is that the state body should always be...

-The Business Standard Deconstructing the numbers shows companies have bid smartly to get the best deals The recently concluded sale of 1,800-MHz spectrum through auction to telecom service operators, or telcos, has been declared a damp squib for two reasons: One, only five telcos participated in the auction; and two, the bids added up to Rs 9,407 crore, which was less than a third of the Rs 30,000 crore the government had...

-Outlook Chennai: As political parties in Tamil Nadu strongly protested the "wrong" depiction of Nadar community in a CBSE textbook, the Centre today assured it would look into the issue and do the needful. The assurance was given by HRD Minister M M Pallam Raju to his party colleague and Shipping Minister G K Vasan when the latter met him to discuss the issue. Raju said he was holding discussions with officials to...

-Frontline There are no effective vaccines against Japanese encephalitis, but its spread can be controlled in India through vector management.  JAPANESE ENCEPHALITIS, or JE, has become endemic in many parts of the country, occurring repeatedly in epidemic form in many of them—for instance, in parts of Gorakhpur in northern Uttar Pradesh. One can expect JE-type epidemics year after year in States where prolonged drought-like conditions are followed by heavy monsoons. This leads to...