REELING under routine 12-hour power cuts daily, Nepal has launched an ambitious multibillion rupees initiative to add 2,500 megawatts (MW) of electricity by 2016. Addressing the country’s Parliament on March 23, Bharat Mohan Adhikary Deputy Prime Minister who also holds the finance and energy portfolios, declared the next four-and-a-half years …
INDIA’S food regulatory authority is all set to notify a comprehensive food safety regulation by January 2011. The Food Safety and Standards (FSS) Regulation will integrate all previous food safety acts like the Prevention of Food Adulteration Act, 1954. But the draft regulations put up on the website of the …
THE Union agriculture ministry has refused to lower standards for imported milk despite some coaxing by the Barack Obama administration during the US president’s recent visit to India. The Department of Animal Husbandry said its milk import norms would remain unchanged. The US dairy industry had for long been pushing …
Of late, honey is being associated with shady dealings, crime, and and a thriving illegal trade spanning the globe. One may wonder why honey, a natural product, is shipped illegally. The reasons become clear if one considers the stringent food safety regulations in Western countries and questionable beekeeping practices in …
India is these days relying on imports to meet the demand for a plant extract valued for its medicinal properties. Guggal or Commiphora wightii grows in the wild in the arid and semi-arid regions of Pakistan and northern India; its resin, guggal-gum, is prescribed in Ayurveda for heart ailments, obesity …
At a time when the Left parties are calling for a ban on futures trading in edible oils, Abhijit Sen, chairman of a committee on futures trading of essential commodities, says such a ban would not help in bringing down domestic prices of edible oils. "Half of our edible oil …
Governments across the developing world are scrambling to boost farm imports and restrict exports in an attempt to forestall rising food prices and social unrest. Saudi Arabia cut import taxes across a range of food products on Tuesday, slashing its wheat tariff from 25 per cent to zero and reducing …
Cheaper imports negatively impacts food security; it seems the government is not bothered about this fact. Read this in tandem. India has drastically reduced import duties on edible oils and rice in a bid to check rising inflation. While the import tariff on rice has been brought down to zero, …
Cabinet Committee on Prices holds emergency meet late in the evening at PM's residence BS Reporters / New Delhi April 01, 2008 Scraps import duties on edible oil; pulses exports ban stays. Taken by surprise over the recent spike in wholesale price inflation, the government today scrapped import duties on …
Output Not Growing Any More, Per Capita Production Down To 70s Levels. Surging foodgrain prices and worsening global supplies are now bringing the domestic food crisis to the boil. The crisis has been building up for some time
POWER sector financing company Power Finance Corporation (PFC) and Railways technical advisory wing RITES, on Thursday, signed an MoU to jointly import coal from countries, including Africa, to ease scarcity of the fuel in view of rising demand by electricity generators. An SPV may be formed later in partnership with …
The State has a demand of about 545 metric tonnes of fish, on an average, per day. The State produces around 500 mt of fish and it imports around 45 mt of fish every day, on an average. Fisheries Minister Nurjamal Sarkar disclosed this in reply to a question of …
The government has no immediate plan to import wheat as it is confident of procuring enough quantity for the buffer stock, agriculture and food minister Sharad Pawar said here on Monday. "We have no immediate plan for wheat import. The condition of the wheat crop is good and the risk …
The fifth (2005) round of the World Bank's International Comparison Program, which produces estimates of the gross domestic product at purchasing power parity prices, has been the most extensive and carefully monitored project so far. The preliminary estimates were noticeable for the large downward revisions of GDP estimates of China …
The jute industry has urged the ministry of textiles (MoT) to impose a ban on the imports of A.Twill and B.Twill jute bags from Bangladesh as part of its qualitative restriction. It has also requested the ministry for quantitative restrictions, whereby imports from Bangladesh will be limited giving a breather …
Expressing concern over rising food prices, finance minister P Chidambaram said he had not forgotten the corporate sector and defended the Rs 60,000 crore farm loan waiver on the ground that the money would flow to a distressed segment of the productive sector where the output was either stagnant or …
Low carry-over stock coupled with likely fall in wheat output may compell India to import about 2 million tonne of the grain during 2008-09 marketing year, a report published by the US department of agriculture said. The country's buffer stock is expected to be below 4 million tonne. Wheat production …
The State Government has lifted the ban on the import of poultry and poultry products from the rest of the country, barring West Bengal. The Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Commissioner and Secretary Shyam Lal Mewara signed the order to this effect yesterday. The State Government imposed the ban on the …
Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister Mulri Deora has said a pro-active approach had been adopted to address the shortage of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG). In a letter to Chief Ministers on LPG shortage in certain parts of the country, Mr. Deora said as an urgent measure, an additional 52,000 metric …
