Newswallah: Bharat Edition

Jammu and Kashmir:  Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has promised a package of 7 billion rupees, or $128 million, over a span of five years to promote sports in Jammu and Kashmir, according to a Press Trust of India report in The Business Standard. With the funding, the state proposes to build hockey and soccer grounds, as well as an indoor stadium in every town with a population of more than 50,000, the state's sports minister said Friday.

West Bengal: The state's real estate sector attracted virtually no new foreign or domestic investment in the financial year 2012-13, according to the Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry, an Indian trade group, The Times of India reported. The total value of new investment commitments in India's real estate sector was more than 420 billion rupees, a decline of almost 55 percent from the year before, but West Bengal fared worst  among all the states, the report said.

Assam: Prime Minister Singh filed his nomination papers for a fifth consecutive term in the upper house of Parliament, or Rajya Sabha, from the state capital Guwahati on Wednesday, an Indo-Asian News Service report on the Zee News Web site said. Mr. Singh's arrival was met with protests from local residents, including students and political activists, who were unhappy with the pace of development in Assam.

Bihar: Lalu Prasad Yadav, chief of the regional Rashtriya Janata Dal party, organized a massive rally Wednesday seeking “parivartan,” or change, in the state, Zee News reported. The party hired 13 trains to bring people to the state capital, Patna, at an estimated cost of 10 million rupees, the report said.

Rajasthan: The International Center for Environmental Audit and Sustainable Development, which was recently inaugurated in Jaipur, is India's first government building with a five-star green rating, The Hindu reported. The building uses a number of environmentally friendly features such as natural light, solar energy and geothermal cooling, according to the report.

Gujarat: Scientists in India recently discovered that the virus that caused the recent death of a lion in the Gir forest is the same one that killed a third of the lion population in the Serengeti in Africa in 1994, The Times of India reported.   While it was the first reported case of the Pestes des Petits Ruminants Virus striking an animal in India, one expert said that if the virus spreads it could kill at least 40 percent of the lions in Gir. The Wildlife Institute of India has teamed up with Britain's Royal Veterinary College to investigate the issue.

Kerala: The Indian Meteorological Department said Wednesday that the monsoon is likely to hit the coast of Kerala on June 3, according to a Reuters report in The Times of India. The monsoon rains from June to September are essential for the 55 percent of Indian farmland that is without irrigation, the report noted.