TODAYS NEWS

1..Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today urged developed nations to ensure that the measures they took to protect the environment and deal with climate change “be equitable in their impact on the development prospects of the developing world’’. Kicking off the 94th Indian Science Congress, being held for the first time in a rural setting at Chidambaram, Annamalai University, about 230 km from Chennai, he said: “The new environmentally-friendly technologies being developed must be shared and made available to all of us so that the planet is saved.’’
2.India is going to carve a new history in the field of space science. Come January 10 and see India launching four satellites, including a recoverable spacecraft, on a home-grown rocket. According to scientists at Bangalore-based Indian Space Research Organization, the blast off would take place at 9.30 am from the Sriharikota spaceport. The polar satellite launch vehicle will carry into space India's cartosat-2, a 680 kg mapping satellite, and the space capsule recovery experiment (SRE 550kg), Indonesia's Lapan-Tubsat satellite (56 kg) and Pehuensat of Argentina (six kg).
3..India expects soon to ink a deal to buy 2.5 million tonnes a year of liquefied natural gas (LNG) from Australia to secure energy supplies as Asian demand grows.
4.The Central sales tax (CST) will be cut by 1% to 3% from April 1, 2007. To compensate states for the resulting revenue loss, they would be permitted to tax 44 new services currently outside the service tax net and an additional 33 services being taxed by the Centre.