ICAR develops bird flu vaccine
New Delhi: Scientists of the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) working at the Bhopal-based High Security Animal Disease Laboratory (HSADL) have developed an indigenous vaccine against the dreaded bird flu disease which surfaced in February this year in Navapur and Jalgaon districts and created a scare among chicken and egg consumers.

The scientists developed the vaccine in a record time of four months under a Rs8-crore project.

A formal announcement of the vaccine development was made by Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar in his address at the 77th annual general meeting of the ICAR Society here today.

The ICAR had decided to develop a "killed vaccine" against bird flu indigenously, immediately after the disease outbreak and had provided Rs8 crore for this purpose. The HSADL is the only facility in the country capable of conducting tests for the H5N1 virus of bird flu.
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STAR TV India moves SC against TDSAT order
New Delhi: Star TV India has approached the Supreme Court against the Telecom Disputes Settlement and Appellate Tribunal (TDSAT) order asking it to share its two-channel bouquets comprising 14 channels to ZEE-group's Dish TV, India's first direct-to-home service.

Star TV India objects to two points in the DTH service: One, on the pricing of its channel bouquet, and two, on the absence of minimum guarantee clause in the TDSAT order. STAR had pleaded that channels must be shared only with those platforms that have a minimum of five lakh subscribers. TDSAT directed STAR to provide its channels to Dish TV at Rs27, which is half the rate it charges from cable operators.
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10,000 vacancies exist for company secys
Kolkata: As most students rush for business management and IT courses, a shortfall is arising for company secretaries in the country.

The Institute of Company Secretaries of India (ICSI), the apex body to develop and regulate the profession of company secretaries in India, has estimated that the registration of students has fallen by about 15 per cent over the past two years. Consequently, there are over 10,000 company secretary posts now lying vacant.

HM Choraria, president, ICSI said, "There is now an increasing tendency in the student community to join the BPO industry. As a result, we are now seeing a drop in registrations over the past couple of years," he said.

Alarmed by the situation, ICSI is now taking initiatives to re-kindle interests amongst the prospective student community on the profession.

It has drawn up a three-level plan: restructuring the course curriculum to make it more student-friendly, launch an e-learning platform and career awareness drive amongst prospective students. The syllabus is being redrafted across the foundation, intermediate and final level of the course.

The platform will include live interaction with experts and students can also access course materials.
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