The Union Minister for Agriculture, Mr Sharad Pawar, with the State ministers for agriculture at an exhibition of sorghum at the national conference, held at NAARM in Hyderabad on Monday. The Union Government would announce the much-awaited minimum support price (MSP) for paddy for this kharif season soon. Talking to newspersons on the sidelines of a national conference of the Ministers of Agriculture here on Monday, Mr Sharad Pawar, Union Agriculture Minister, said the Government would, in all likelihood, announce the MSP on May 29 or 30. He hinted that the MSP would be higher.

GVK Bio has entered into a research agreement with Wyeth Pharmaceuticals, a division of Wyeth, to undertake drug discovery research and generate intellectual property (IP). Based on the research output, the company would file INDs (Investigative New Drug) with the US Food & Drug Administration. The work would be largely on drug candidates focused on pre-defined discovery targets. GVK Bio, the Hyderabad-based company, will utilise in-house capabilities in discovery chemistry, informatics, biology and toxicology to advance this collaborative programme expected to be between 2-3 years.

Women and nuclear-capable ballistic missiles usually don't go together. But, breaking the glass ceiling in a typical male bastion, a woman scientist will now head a key missile project of the country. Tessy Thomas, 45, will now be the project director for the new advanced version of the 2,500-km range Agni-II missile. The promotion comes soon after she played a crucial role in the successful firing of the 3,500-km range Agni-III missile last week as associate project director.

The AP forest department has decided to create 1,000 water holes in reserve forests to ensure that thirsty panthers don't stray into human habitations and get killed. Forest officials will be particularly focusing on forests with a high population of panthers located in the fringe areas of cities. They will also create artificial waterfalls in these areas and also in the elephant sanctuary in Kuppam.

The first-ever open competitive system for supply of Aviation Turbine Fuel (ATF) at the Rajiv Gandhi International Airport (RGIA), Shamshabad, and sharp reduction in sales tax levied by the Andhra Pradesh Government have seen the ATF intake of airlines at the new airport doubling to 1,100 kilo litres (a kilo litre is 1,000 litres) from 550 kl, when it began commercial operations on March 23. Clearly, the airlines, which had initially expressed concern over the huge recovery costs on every litre they buy, have started filling up their tanks at the new international airport.

The Centre on Thursday said that construction work on the metro rail projects in Mumbai, Hyderabad, Chennai, Kolkata and Kochi would commence within two years. Replying to a question in Rajya Sabha, Union urban development minister Jaipal Reddy said: "The metro projects for Mumbai, Hyderabad, Chennai, Kolkata and Kochi are in different stages of approval. The government's effort is to expedite the process.

Honeywell Technology Solutions Lab (HTSL), the R&D arm of the US-based Honeywell Technologies, will invest $15 million to set up a chemical catalyst R&D facility in Hyderabad. This will be the second facility for the company here. The company has requested the Andhra Pradesh government to allot 10 acres for the project. The facility will undertake in-house research and development activity for different arms of Honeywell.

a compound found in the Indian toad's skin can cure liver and blood cancer. The compound, called bm-anf 1, has been found to prevent the growth of cancer cells in experiments conducted by the

using a bug that is believed to have existed and evolved in human stomachs for millions of years, scientists have unearthed fresh evidence to support the hypothesis that Indians and Europeans

A new online water quality monitoring system to keep a daily tab on water quality in regions falling under Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (ghmc) will be up and running by the end of July.