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Lucknow, Special eco-friendly fireworks witnessed a high demand in Lucknow markets on the occasion of Diwali festival. Growing awareness about polluting fire crackers motivated families, especially children, to neglect them this time around.
Consequent to anti-firecracker campaign and awareness drive about ill-effects of bursting harmful firecrackers gaining momentum, manufacturers of firecrackers supplied eco-friendly variants anticipating public demand.
Carrying photographs of various Bollywood and Hollywood actors and actresses, the eco-friendly crackers were a major draw for everyone here.
These crackers don”t cause any kind of serious mishap like burns and fires. Besides, these new crackers can be used in indoor parties and functions also. These crackers work on the principle of vacuum pressure.
Thousands of residents in this City of Nawabs had taken oath of using only eco- friendly crackers. Hence, a high demand for eco-friendly firecrackers was witnessed.
“We always purchase crackers from this shop only on Diwali. But this time we thought that we won”t be bursting crackers, as it cause lot of pollution. But when we came to know about this brand new crackers being eco-friendly, we rushed to this shop and bought all sorts of such crackers,” said Satish, a resident of Lucknow.
Every year a high air and noise pollution on the occasion of Diwali used to reach the apex, which was intended to be relatively low this year, courtesy the eco friendly-crackers.
“On every Diwali, we try keeping new sorts of fire crackers. But this time we have kept eco-friendly firecrackers, and these crackers are doing pretty good business. These firecrackers don”t need to be ignited. All you have to do is just twist its rim and it will work automatically,” said Gulshan Azad, a vendor of firecrackers. (ANI)
New Delhi – Pakistani troops fired at Indian forward positions along a de facto border between the two countries in Jammu and Kashmir state, a news report said Tuesday.
The Pakistani troops fired rockets, mortars and small arms in forward areas along the Line of Control (LoC) in the Poonch region late Monday night, a senior Indian army officer told the PTI news agency.
Around 10 shells were fired during a half-hour period, but did not cause any damage or casualties to Indian troops, the officer said.
India’s Border Security Force did not retaliate, he said.
The LoC is a de facto border dividing the disputed Kashmir region into two parts, one administered by India and the other by Pakistan.
Nuclear-capable South Asian neighbours India and Pakistan have fought three wars, two of them over Kashmir.
More than 40,000 people have been killed in a violent separatist militant movement in India-administered Kashmir since the late 1980s.
India accuses Pakistan of aiding Kashmiri militants, a charge Islamabad denies, calling them freedom fighters.
The two countries are currently engaged in a dialogue to resolve differences, including those over Kashmir. They entered a ceasefire agreement on the line of control in Kashmir in November 2003.
But there have been several shooting incidents over the past few months, with Indian Army officials claiming there have been 35 violations of the ceasefire by Pakistani troops since January 2008.
Monday night’s alleged breach came less than a fortnight after the two countries agreed to refrain from cross-border shooting along the border.
Officials from the Pakistan Rangers and the Border Security Force met in Lahore on October 16 and decided to honour a 4-year-old ceasefire.
Indian officials say the ceasefire violations and firing by Pakistan are aimed to provide cover for militants to infiltrate into Jammu and Kashmir to target assembly elections due to begin from November 17.
Over 132 infiltration attempts have been reported in the last nine months from across the LoC, in which 80 militants have been killed, the PTI reported.
The Indian army has strengthened security along the border after intelligence said several groups of militants were waiting to sneak into Jammu and Kashmir. (dpa)
Kolkata,External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee has ruled out military action as solution to the ethic conflict in Sri Lanka.
Talking to reporters here on Monday, Mukherjee said, “India believes military solution cannot resolve the ethnic issues of the Sri Lankan minorities. For that, the devolution as recommended by the high power committee should be implemented in letter and spirit.”
He also expressed satisfaction on his recent talks with Sri Lankan special envoy Basil Rajapaksa.
During the talks with Rajapaksa in New Delhi, India had sought assurance from Sri Lanka that all humanitarian steps would be taken to protect the ethnic Tamils in the island nation during the ongoing military offensive against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).
India has pledged to provide 800 tonnes of relief material to the civilian population in conflict-hit Sri Lanka to areas where Indian origin Tamil population is predominant.
The Indian side called for implementation of the greater devolution to powers to the provinces as the issue of negotiated political settlement in the north came up for the discussion in the meeting.
Mukherjee also got an assurance from the Tamil Nadu Chief Minister and Dravida Munnettra Kazhagam (DMK) party chief M Karunanidhi that he “would not precipitate” a crisis in the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) Government over the Sri Lankan ethnic Tamils issue.
Mukherjee said that Karunanidhi had also emphasised the need to ensure a ceasefire, but ruled out a direct role for India. (ANI)
Solar Semiconductor , a rapidly growing producer of high-quality photovoltaic (PV) modules, has announced its merger with US based Trans-India Acquisition Corporation.
According to an official release, Trans-India has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire not less than 80% shares in the privately held Solar Semiconductor Ltd.
The proposed acquisition is valued at $375 million, which would be formalized once the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) formally approves the amalgamation.
The process of acquisition is expected to be completed by February 2009.
Solar Semiconductor was incorporated in Cayman Islands and has subsidiaries in US and India. It designs, manufactures and sells solar photovoltaic (PV) modules for industrial, commercial, public utility and residential applications internationally.
The company has manufacturing facilities in Hyderabad with an annual production capacity for 75 MW of PV modules.
Post-merger, the new entity will be called Solar Semiconductor Corporation, which is proposed to invest USD 300 million in the next two to three years.
Mumbai-based Parle Agro, a leading food and beverage company, is aiming a Rs 3,500-crore turnover by 2010-11.
The proposed turnover is nearly four-fold rise from its present turnover of Rs 950 crore.
Parle Agro plans to expand its distribution network through organic route and aggressive marketing strategy.
For starters, it has decided to expand production capacity of its mineral water, which is sold under the Bailley brand.
In addition, the promotional budget for the company will also used to make a way into newer markets.
At present, the company has 26 mineral water factories across the country, which it plans to extend up to 60 in the first quarter of next fiscal.
The company has decided to spend Rs 25 crore in current fiscal, for promoting its basket of products.
Recently, the company has entered into pure juice category under the brand name ‘Saint Juice’.
Unity Infraprojects has received an order worth Rs 375.25 crore from Pink City Expressway Pvt. Ltd.
The scope of work involves Widening and Up gradation of Existing 4-Lane Road to 6-Lane Road under Contract Package IV from Km 144+770 (Mardha Village) to Km 181+300 (Antela Village) in the state of Rajasthan.
The order is scheduled to be completed within 30 months.
The company’s shares closed at 6% down at Rs 153 on BSE. The share price of the company had touched a high of Rs 1120 in December 2007. However, the market meltdown has seen the stock price falling to its 52-week low of Rs 150 a share.