New Delhi, Feb. 24 : To bring social change, hundreds of students on Tuesday took out a street march to create public awareness bringing a feeling of social change among youngsters and draw government’s attention towards important issues concerning the present day youth including student fraternity.

New Delhi, Feb 24 : Union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar on Tuesday appealed to the cooperative sectors to ensure a fair share of benefits of growth to small and marginal farmers. Pawar assured them that the policy environment will be more supportive of healthy growth and development of cooperatives.

New Delhi, Feb 24 : Railway Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav today released a book, titled ''Disaster Management in the Indian Railways'' authored by Minister of State for Railways Dr. R. Velu.

Congratulating Dr. Velu for his book, Yadav said that the Indian Railways is the lifeline of the nation and has frequently played an important role in the management of all kinds of disasters.

"Dr. Velu''s individual efforts to review disaster management on Indian Railways through his book are commendable," he added.

New Delhi, Feb. 24 : The Parliament on Monday approved a bill facilitating salary hike of the Supreme Court and the High Courts judges. The judges are likely to get a three-fold salary rise.

Last week, Lok Sabha had approved `The High Court and Supreme Court Judges Amendment (Salaries and Conditions of Service) Bill 2008.

The bill will increase the salary of the Chief Justice of India from 33,000 rupees to one lakh rupees per month, while other apex court judges will get a boost of 90,000 rupees from their earlier 30,000 per month salary.

New Delhi - The Indian government Tuesday announced a 2-percentage-point reduction in excise and tax duties to stimulate the slowing economy.

The general excise duty was reduced to 8 per cent while tax on services has been brought down to 10 per cent, India's acting Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee said.

The latest tax cuts would mean a revenue loss of 300 billion rupees (about 6 billion dollars) for the government, Economic Affairs Secretary Ashok Chawla was quoted as saying by PTI news agency.