The Gujarat High Court has disposed of a petition, with costs of Rs. 1 lakh, filed by an organisation that sought a new law for protection of “harassed husbands” against atrocities by wives and an amendment to the existing law. A Division Bench of Chief Justice S.J. Mukhopadhyaya and Justice K.M. Thaker fined the Akhil Bhartiya Patni Atyachar Virodhi Sangh (the All India Wives Cruelty Opposition Union) for filing a frivolous...

The bacterial blight-resistant ‘samba masuri' variety paddy developed by the Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB) here was successful in its field trials conducted in about 5,000 acres in Karnataka this year, Director of the premier research organisation Ch. Mohan Rao stated here on Friday. Addressing Media persons as part of the CCMB's foundation day celebrations Mr. Rao said wide acceptance of the paddy variety in Shimoga and other areas...

The government on Friday hinted at the possibility of the Media-lobbyist nexus being examined by either the ethics or privileges committee of Parliament. Senior sources dropped broad hints that either of the two committees could go into the whole gamut of corporate lobbyist Niira Radia's telephonic conversations with Media personalities. This was the first government response to the Opposition's demand that the Media's role in corporate lobbying come under the JPC scrutiny....

The Union Environment Ministry on Friday issued a show cause notice to the controversial Lavasa Corporation Limited (LCL), raising serious questions over a number of its constructions that it deems as ‘violations.' Lavasa, India's first hill city, is the ambitious project undertaken by Hindustan Construction Company (HCC) about 45 km from Pune. To be built over 25,000 acres, the luxurious city now faces a serious problem with the Ministry notice. The company...

NIIRA RADIA — owner of PR company Vaishnavi Communications, among others — is not merely a fixer in the old sense of the word. She is a thermometer reading for a very ill society. In April this year, a clutch of mysterious documents had made their way to several Media houses. At face value the documents seemed a synopsis of phone conversations between Niira — a powerful lobbyist for Mukesh...