National

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.

Awards Emerging Residential Infrastructure Company of the Year' award Orris Infrastructure, a leading real estate developer, has bagged the prestigiou s Emerging Residential Infrastructure Company of the Year' award for 2010. The award was presented to Orris Infrastructure chairman and managing director V ijay Gupta by Union Urban Development Minister Kamal Nath

Neyveli Lignite Corporation has won a national award Neyveli Lignite Corporation has won a national award for tices for 2009-2010. Innovative training prac

The award instituted, by the Indian Society for Training and Development, New De lhi, was handed over by Bhaskar Chatterjee, Secretary, Central Department of Pub lic Enterprises, to NLC Deputy General Manager N.Balaji at Kota, Rajasthan.

BUSINESS India-ASEAN trade to reach $70 b in 3 years India-ASEAN trade during the calendar year 2009 was exports $17.3 billion and im ports $23.8 billion and during 2010 exports $22.3 billion and imports $27.8 bill ion.

MobME Wireless Solutions got NASSCOM Innovation Award for 2011. MobME Wireless Solutions, a Technopark-based company specialising in mobile valu e-added services, has won the NASSCOM Innovation Award for 2011. MobME won the award under the category, Market Facing Innovation, for its implem entation of the m Governance Service Delivery Platform (mSDP) for Kerala State I T Mission, India's first m-governance project.

Forest Labs to buy Clinical Data for $1.2 billion New York-based Forest Laboratories Inc. is buying specialty pharmaceutical compa ny Clinical Data Inc. of Newton, Massachusetts, in a $1.2 billion deal in order to gain access to a key antidepressant.