Nation's first Titanium sponge plant (TSP) Defence Minister A.K.

Antony inaugurated the country's first titanium sponge pla nt (TSP) on the Chavara complex of the public sector Kerala Minerals and Metals Limited (KMML) The TSP is a joint venture of KMML, Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC) and the Defence Metallurgical Research Laboratory. The VSSC has fully funded the Rs.147crore TSP project. With the inauguration of TSP, India becomes the 7th country in the world having the technology for producing titanium sponge, which is the raw material for tita nium metal.

Air India Express (AIE) headquarters opened in Kochi Union Minister for Civil Aviation and Overseas Indian Affairs Vayalar Ravi inaug urated the headquarters of Air India Express (AIE). The airline will now function from Kochi.

India Agri Award 2011' for Action Fraterna Ecology Centre Action Fraterna Ecology Centre, Anantapur, was presented the India Agri Award 201 1' by the Mahindra and Mahindra Group of Companies at New Delhi for its outstand ing contribution to the cause of agriculture development.

27500 crore rupee Annual Plan for Rajasthan The Planning Commission finalized 27500 crore rupee Annual Plan for Rajasthan fo r the year 2011-12. A decision to this effect was taken at a meeting held in New Delhi between Deput y Chairman of Planning Commission, Montek Singh Ahluwalia and the Chief Minister Mr Ashok Gehlot.

150-rupee coin coming soon For the first time in the country's minting history, the Union Government will i ssue coins of Rs. 150 denomination, marking the number of years of taxation in I ndia. The special coins, to be released by Union Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee bef ore his Budget speech, will also be brought out in five-rupee denomination on co mpletion of 150 years, from 1860 to 2010, of the Income Tax department.

New policy announced for connecting coal, iron ore mining belts by rail network Railway Ministry has announced a new policy to speed up the process of connectin g coal and iron ore mining belts by the rail network.

Saving Asia's Vultures from Extinction

(SAVE) launched

The second phase of ongoing vulture conservation efforts in the country, a new c onsortium, Saving Asia's Vultures from Extinction (SAVE), was launched. The first phase of the programme has been successfully completed by breeding in captivity vultures of three critically endangered species.

Next Chairman of Indian Oil Corporation ONGC Videsh Ltd. (OVL) Managing Director R. S. Butola will be the next Chairman of Indian Oil Corporation. The file of apppointment is sent to the cabinet and yet to be approved.

RAPS-1 reactor not decommissioned The first reactor at the Rajasthan Atomic Power Station, the RAPS-1 at Rawatbhat ta, near Kota, has been shut down permanently since October 2004. The natural ur anium fuel has been taken out of the reactor, and the heavy water, which acted a s both coolant and moderator, drained from it. The 100 MWe reactor has not been decommissioned though. The reactor has had a chequered history since it started generating commercial e lectricity in December 1973.

Centre allocates 6,000crore under Rajiv Awas Yojana to make cities slum-free The funds to be given under the Government's Rajiv Awas Yojana, RAY, will be use d for construction of over two lakh houses. Under the scheme 50 per cent of the cost of construction will be borne by the Ce ntre and the rest will be borne by the state government, the urban local body an d the beneficiary.

Nayudamma award for Dr. Shanta V. Shanta, chairperson of the Cancer Institute, Adyar, Chennai, has been selecte d for the Y. Nayudamma Memorial Award for 2010.

The United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) has granted special cons ultative status to Banswara-based Vaagdhara, a non-governmental organisation wor king for empowerment of impoverished and vulnerable groups among farmers, tribal population, women and children in southern Rajasthan by creating capacity-build ing opportunities for them. Established in 1986-87, Vaagdhara is among 17 NGOs from across the world and thr ee from India to be chosen by ECOSOC.

New SEBI Chairman,U. K. Sinha Upendra Kumar Sinha took charge as the Securities and Exchange Board of India's Chairman from the outgoing chief, C. B. Bhave.

Montek launches website on XII Plan The Planning Commission launched a dedicated website to elicit suggestions and v iews of the people for formulating the XII Plan (2012-2017).

MGNREGS to get biometric database The Centre proposes to create a biometric database of all workers covered under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme. It will be used t o authenticate work applications, work-site attendance and wage payments, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said.

Mahindra Satyam gets CMMI Level 5 Mahindra Satyam on Tuesday announced that its development centres in Bangalore, Chennai and Pune were assessed at Level 5 for the CMMI Version 1.2-Development m odel by KPMG

IIM-A ranked 11 {+t} {+h} among global business schools The Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, has been placed 11th in The Finan cial Times Global MBA Ranking of the world's top 100 business schools in 2011.

India donates $250,000 for anti-slavery memorial India, the largest donor towards the setting up of an anti-slavery memorial. Its contribution of $250,000 was towards the Trust Fund for the Permanent Memorial to honour the Victims of Slavery and the Transatlantic Slave Trade.

SAARC to have first woman Secretary-General SAARC will get its first woman Secretary-General in its silver jubilee year the former Maldivian Attorney-General, Fathimath Dhiyana Saeed, is all set to succee d Indian diplomat Sheel Kant Sharma, who will complete his tenure of three years

MMRCA contract may be signed by September

Medium Multi Role Combat Aircraft (MMRCA) is expected to be taken next month and the contract could be signed by September this year. Outlining the roadmap for the acquisition of 126 planes, Chief of Air Staff P.V. Naik said Padmaraj commission The constitution of the Justice B. Padmaraj Commission of Inquiry to go into cas es of illegal allotment of land and sites and denotification of land in Karnatak a.

Cabinet approves Rs.1,100 crore fund infusion for RRBs The Union Cabinet on Thursday approved capital infusion of Rs.1,100 crore for re gional rural banks (RRBs) for improving their capital adequacy ratio. The share of the Central Government, that is, Rs.1,100 crore, will be released as per provisions made by the Department of Expenditure in 2010-11 and 2011-12,'' Information and Broadcasting Minister Ambika Soni told.

Panel for revamping crop data collection The Vaidyanathan Committee of Experts on Agricultural Statistics has recommended restructuring of the methodology for collection of farm statistics in a phased manner to ensure objective, reliable and timely estimates of crop areas and yiel ds. It has suggested setting up of a National Crop Statistics Centre (NCSC) as the n odal agency to undertake the work in collaboration with the Departments of Agric ulture and Space.

Centre evolves new educational methodology for rural development To ensure proper use of its Rs. 86,553 crore annual rural spending, an ambitious curriculum to train and educate all those involved in the execution of the prog rammes concerned is on the anvil. This mass-based decentralised capacity buildin g process, the first of its kind among developing countries, intends to develop skills of 40 lakh hands annually. To achieve this, the Centre has evolved a new educational and training methodolo gy for rural development and improving the livelihoods of the rural folk under a Central Training Authority to be set up under a new law currently under conside ration. The Union Ministry of Rural Development has come up with the draft National Rura l Development Training Authorities Bill, 2011 which has received the approval of

both the Law Ministry and Expenditure Ministry. It has been circulated for publ ic opinion before its introduction in Parliament for ratification.

DRDO crosses Rs.1 lakh crore-mark in production value The production value of weapons and systems developed by the Defence Research an d Development Organisation (DRDO) had crossed Rs.1 lakh crore during the six yea rs