New Delhi, Feb 13 : India has signed a Financing Agreement of National Vector Borne Disease Control and Polio Eradication Support Project with the World Bank, here today.

The agreement is for a total assistance of approximately 518 million dollar as part of IDA allocation to India.

The project aims at enhancing the effectiveness of government response to control malaria, eliminate Kala Azar and eradicate polio. This will be achieved by increasing the number of people benefiting from effective prevention, diagnosis and treatment services for malaria and Kala Azar, and vaccination against polio.

New Delhi, Feb 13 : Seventeen geologists, engineers and technologists were honoured on Friday with the National Mineral Awards-2007.

The awards are given for outstanding contributions in the fields of mineral discovery and explorations, fundamental and applied geosciences and mining and allied disciplines.

Presenting the awards, Union Minister of Mines Sis Ram Ola called for additional capital investment in exploring concealed mineral deposits by using an environment friendly extraction technology.

He confessed that a more comprehensive resource inventory is the need of the hour for the nation.

New Delhi, Feb 13, : Congress spokesperson Abhishek Manu Singhvi on Friday said the former US President George W. Bush should be given India's highest civilian honour, Bharat Ratna, for his contribution to the India-US nuclear cooperation programme.

"Give Bharat Ratna to Bush. I do not know what the rules are but I will officially do something," Singhvi said.

He was addressing the annual general meeting of the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI).

New Delhi, Feb 13 : The new integrated terminal building at the Srinagar Airport will be inaugurated tomorrow with the first international flight of Air India Express to Dubai starting operation from the Airport.

This is a weekly flight and is expected to provide direct connectivity to the immigrant population in Middle East and fillip to tourism in the state of Jammu and Kashmir.

New Delhi, Feb 13 : The Lok Sabha on Friday evaded a discussion on the 7,500 crore Satyam scam on the request of leader of the main opposition Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) L K Advani.

Deputy Speaker Charanjit Singh Atwal, who was chairing the post-lunch sitting, postponed the discussion on the issue to an indefinite date after the Telugu Desam Party leader K Yerran Naidu and CPI-M member Rupchand Pal asked about the plans to restore the fraud hit IT Satyam.

New Delhi - An Indian businessman and his domestic servant were Friday sentenced to death in the first of several cases related to the rape and murder of 19 people, most of them children, in a Delhi suburb in 2006.

A special Central Bureau of Investigation court convicted businessman Moninder Singh Pandher and Surendra Koli of raping and killing 14-year-old Rimpa Haldar.

Pronouncing the sentence, Judge Rama Jain held that their crime fell in the "rarest of rare" category that deserved capital punishment.