News you can use

1. 31 films of Ismail Merchant, the Indian-born film-maker who died at the age of 98 in London had been nominated to the Best Picture category in the Oscars. Merchant-Ivory, the production house he ran with James Ivory, finds mention in the Guinness Book of World Records for the longest (over 30 years) such partnership.

2. 1,40,000 crorepatis will be there in India by 2009-10, says the National Council for Applied Economic Research.

3. 50 million dollar (Rs 217 crore will be spent by Harvard University to recruit and promote women and minorities on its faculty.

4. 400 years have elapsed since the first printed newspaper ‘Relation’ was published.

5. 10 per cent of skin cancers globally are because of exposure to hazardous substances in workplace, says the International Labour Organization.

6. 48.6 per cent of farmer households in India are in debt, says the National Sample Survey Organization.

7. 465 child labourers were rescued from factories in Mumbai in the last week of May.

8. 2 crore of 6 crore disabled children in China have either speaking or hearing disability.

9. 4,390 meters is the altitude at which the new Gondola ropeway in Gulmarg is situated.

10. 1,26,000 rupees was found in the shack of a beggar who died in Anwan, Bihar.

11. 9 is the rank of Bollywood icon Aishwarya Rai in the list of 50 most beautiful women published by Harpers and Queen, UK.

12. 33,500 students qualified in the All India Engineering Entrance Exam out of 3,96,000 candidates in 2005.

13. Deccan Queen, one of the longest serving trains in India, completed 76 years of service on June 1.

14. 144 rupees is the price of Railway Minister Lalu Prased Yadav’s lookalike doll in Bihar.

15. Minoru Saito of Japan took 234 days to cirumnavigate the globe in a yacht, breaking the record he set in 1999.

16. 67 per cent of rural houses in India own a ratio and a cassette recorder while 51 per cent own in urban areas, says the National Sample Survey Organization.

17. 30,000 pounds (Rs.24 lakh) is the price of a highland single malt Scotch whisky by Whyte and Mackey Ltd, the most expensive ever.

18. 31 of 273 participants in the 78th Annual Scripps National Spelling Bee competition in Washington were Indian Americans. Anurag Kashyap, a Californian of Indian orgin, won the contest.

19. 1.46 lakh tones of e-waste is generated annually by India, says the Ministry of Environment and Forests.