• The water crisis in Ahmedabad, Gujarat, may soon be abated. The city will start getting water from the Narmada River via the Raska wier. Other areas that will benefit include Vadodara, Bhavnagar, Amreli, Rajot and Junagadh.
• India's first indigenously developed HIV detection kit will be soon available in the market. Named HIV-I and IIW.Blot, the kit has been developed by the department of biotechnology at the Cancer Research Institute, Mumbai. The kit will cost only Rs 600, compared to imported ones that cost Rs 1,380.
• The Gangotri glacier is receding at an alarming rate. In the past 61 years, it receded by 1,147 metres -- an average of 19 metres per year. This was revealed by a study conducted by Garhwal University researchers.
• Wireless in local loop technique will be soon available under the Gyandoot project that is being implemented in the Dhar district of Madhya Pradesh. The technique will help solve problems of connectivity in areas that have no telephone facilities.
• Poachers from Myanmar, Thailand, Indonesia and Sri Lanka are destroying the ecosystem of the Andaman and Nicobar islands, according to a media report.
• The election commission has issued an order exempting the staff of wildlife sanctuaries from poll duty in the forthcoming assembly elections. This decision has been taken following recent incidents of animal poaching.
• The foot-and-mouth disease has lead to the death of numerous cattleheads in Haryana and Punjab. This disease is endemic to India, but its latest variant is killing animals within hours of affecting.
• About 34 per cent of the world's polio cases are found in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, according to the World Health Organisation.
• Over 1,214 hectares of forest areahas been illegally felled in the Gudalur area of Tamil Nadu in violation of a 1995 Supreme Court's order, alleges the state's forest staff association.
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