New Delhi, Aug 29: A meeting of Foreign Ministers of the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC) will be held here today

The meeting will prepare the ground work for the summit of BIMSTEC counties, to be held in New Delhi in November.

According to sources, the meeting will dwell on terrorism, energy, food crisis, poverty alleviation and change in water and air.

New Delhi, Aug 29: A university teachers' association is observing a strike today to protest delay in finalisation of report of University Grants Commission (UGC) pay revision committee.

Federation of Central Universities Teachers' Association (FEDCUTA) president Aditya Narayan Mishra said, "We observe the strike in central universities all over the country to demand that the report of the committee headed by Prof G K Chaddha be submitted soon."

New Delhi, Aug 29: Union Cabinet Secretary KM Chandrashekhar will inaugurate a half-day ''Thinkshop on next Gen MCA21'' here today.

The Thinkshop is being organised by the Ministry of Corporate Affairs with a view to further evolve its flagship e-Governance project, theMCA21.

New Delhi, Aug 29 : Defence Minister AK Antony will lay the foundation stone of a Sainik School in Rewari district of Haryana today.

Minister of State for Defence Production Rao Inderjit Singh and Minister of State for Defence MM Pallam Raju will also be present on the occasion.

Rao Inderjit Singh, who has worked painstakingly towards realizing this goal, said the Sainik School being set up at Tappa Gothra Khori village would be the second Sainik School in the state. The Government of Haryana had recently signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Ministry of Defence in this regard.

New Delhi, Aug 28 : The Union Government has given the green signal to raise a 10,000-strong special anti-Naxal force COBRA to combat the growing Left-wing extremism in the country.

The Cabinet Committee on Security chaired by the Prime Minister gave the nod to the Combat Battalion for Resolute Action (COBRA), under the command and control of the CRPF.

K Durga Prasad, a 1981 batch IPS officer from Andhra Pradesh and an expert in handling the anti-naxal operations, is likely to take charge of the COBRA.

New Delhi, Aug 28 : Telecom Minister A Raja today said the auction process for 3G spectrum would be completed by October-end and services could start by this year itself.

"The spectrum auction process would be end by October and I want the operators to roll out their 3G services within this year," Raja said.

Sources said BSNL and MTNL, who are in the midst of launching pilots for 3G, would launch the high-end services by the end of this year.