Berlin- The German Foreign Office said Tuesday it would provide aid of up to 500,000 euros (725,000 dollars) to flood victims in the Indian state of Bihar.

Up to 2.5 million people were in urgent need of emergency accommodation, food, drinking water and medical supplies, the ministry said.

It said the funds would be placed at the disposal of German aid organizations working in the area, making use of their longstanding experience of the conditions there.

New Delhi, Sep 2 : The Election Commission today decided to convene a meeting of political parties in New Delhi on September 8 to assess the situation in Jammu and Kashmir over the possibility of holding assembly polls in the wake of the recent violence in the State.

A decision to call leaders of seven national parties and three state parties was taken by the EC in view of the fact that Governor’s rule in the state ends on January 10 and the need to hold elections on time in case the government is keen on the conduct of the democratic exercise.

New Delhi, Sept 2 : In order to meet the deadline of producing Euro-III and Euro-IV grade petrol and diesel from April 2010, the Indian Oil Corporation (IOC), the country’s largest refiner, is investing over Rs 12,000 crore to upgrade its seven refineries.

IOC Director (Refineries) B. N. Bankapur said, "All our refineries are on schedule to meet the Euro-III and Euro-IV deadline."

Petrol and diesel meeting the stringent Euro-IV specifications is to be supplied in seven metro cities of Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata, Bangalore, Hyderabad and Ahmedabad from April 1, 2010 and for the rest of the country Euro-III grade fuel is to be supplied from that date.

On the occasion of Ganesh Chaturthi, Big 92.7 FM has made announcement about the special promotional plans and interactive initiatives across all its Indian stations.

While Big FM RJ’s will visit different pandals across the city in order to give live updates on the festival, the station has aligned interactive plans such as on-air talk shows, contests, call-ins and on-ground events surrounding Ganesh Chaturthi across all its stations.

Moreover, the FM station is organizing a talent hunt known as ‘Comedy Ganesha’ in Bangalore.

Tokyo - Japanese automaker Hino Motors Ltd and major trading company Marubeni Corp announced a joint venture Tuesday to sell vehicles in India.