Addressing public interest litigation by Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) Intellectuals' Forum, the Supreme Court (SC) said that it couldn’t reverse environmental damage due to "development." The Andhra Pradesh (AP) based NGO had accused the AP Government of infringing on two ancient tanks that collect rain water by converting them into housing complexes. The SC warned that the right to shelter should not supersede the right to environment and pointed out that state representative were mere custodians of community property and cannot alienate or infringe upon them. An expert committee appointed by the SC said that one of the tanks could be revived while the other irreversibly lost. The SC has instructed the state Government to revive the feeder channels, clearing housing and "development" that block rain water feeds, bar ground water harvesting, and institute rain water harvesting for the redeemable tank. The SC also banned the use of ground water from the other tank. In the last one year, the free power policy AP Government has resulted in over-exploitation of groundwater often rendering ancient aquifers dry. This election largess that brought it to power has nearly bankrupted the state electricity board..

The Health Ministry said that 94 of 95 samples tested negative of bird flu virus. The Ministry said that barring one case, the National Institute of Virology (NIV) at Pune and National Institute of Communicable Diseases (NICD) in Delhi confirmed the rest negative. The Ministry claimed that its rapid response team is carrying out house-to-house surveillance in affected areas of Maharashtra and Gujarat. In Navapur district of Maharashtra, over 30,000 people and an additional 27,000 people in neighboring villages have been surveyed and only 12 people whose poultry has been affected suffer from Upper respiratory Infection (URI). In Gujarat, it said that 540 people in a population of 47,000 people have reported fever of which 471 have URI. Those working on culling including veterinarians, cullers, laborers, and poultry workers are all healthy. So far 253,000 birds have been culled, 587,000 eggs buried, and 2,500 tons of fecal matter and bird feed disposed. The 60 Government teams have overcome a lot of resistance from poultry farm owners and managed to inspect 52 farms shutting down 6 of them.

The biggest US defense contractor Lockheed Martin Corp said that it plans to provide airborne surveillance system to Indonesia and Malaysia to better protect the Straits of Malacca. Nearly half of the world's oil and a third of global trade pass through the 550-mile pirate-infested narrow sea-lanes that see 50,000 ships every year. Last year, 12 pirate incidents targeted high value cargo and experts worry that terrorists may increasingly target ships, especially oil tankers as in Nigeria, if not protected. A British-based group of insurance underwriters Lloyd's Market Association made the straits a high-risk area requiring ships to pay an additional USD 5000 per trip.

Scientific Advisor to Defense minister M. Natarajan said an Airborne Early Warning System (AEWS) was in advanced stages of design. Emphasizing the need to protect the 7,300-kilometer of coast and 5,000 kilometer of land border, Natarajan said a third of the USD 2.5 billion-defense budget is spent on surveillance systems.

The Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) Satellite Center Director K.N. Shankara said that his organization would launch an experimental communication satellite G-SAT4 in 2007. Expected to be launched by the Geostationary Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV), this satellite will carry onboard 8 Ka-band transponders catering to countrywide demand for hub-less VSAT or broadband connectivity. It will also carry 3 Ultra Violet imagers from the Tel Aviv University to survey the sky.