LUCKNOW: After three years of functioning without an industrial policy in the state, the Uttar Pradesh government is ready with its new draft Industrial and Service Sector Investment Policy (ISSIP) for 2012. Currently open to consultations with industry stakeholders, the policy, in its new avatar, aims to clock an industrial growth of 10%, create 25 lakh new jobs annually, ensure equal development of all regions of the state and make UP the most sought-after investment destination in the country.

With a weak rupee, exporters are confident of demand for Indian agri products in global mkt
Exporters of agri commodities such as wheat, sugar and cotton feel that shipments could pick up if India would enter into bilateral agreements with countries in the Middle East, Africa and the Saarc bloc. Comfortable global stock and a slowdown in the world economy are making Indian agri commodity exports unviable, say exporters. With a weak rupee, exporters are confident of demand for Indian agri products in international market if bilateral agreements are in place.

Tension prevailed at some places in Haveri district on Tuesday, due to protests and stampede during distribution of Bt cotton seeds.

Farmers break barricades in a bid to collect seeds from an outlet of Bt cotton seeds company in Haveri district on Tuesday. The increase in demand for the ‘Kanaka’ variety of seeds and shortage of supply led to the rush. In Haveri city, police resorted to mild lathicharge as around 12,000 farmers fell over each other to collect the seeds.

New Delhi As part of its plan to create two-million-tonne-capacity silos for storing grain across the country, the government has approved creation of silos in 10 states with the capacities ranging from 4 lakh tonne to 50,000 tonne.

The state-level committees on silos are identifying suitable locations, which would be built via the private-public-partnership mode. Food minister KV Thomas said that while 4-lakh-tonne-capacity silos would be built in Punjab, Madhya Pradesh would get silos with a capacity 3.5 lakh tonne. Haryana and UP would get silos with 3-lakh-tonne capacity each.

‘State does not distribute seeds, it only certifies for distribution'

Despite opposition from various quarters, including the agricultural experts and the farmers' organisations, the Gujarat government has refused to impose a total ban on distribution of the Monsanto hybrid maize seed named “Prabal” to the farmers in the State, particularly the tribal agriculturists.

Gandhinagar: Gujarat agriculture minister Dilip Sanghani has said the state government had ‘stopped’ the distribution of the controversial Monsanto maize seed Prabal in Gujarat. However, neither the state agriculture department nor the state tribal department have taken any decision on totally banning the distribution of the hybrid seed. In fact, officials have been quick to point out that there is no move to bar Monsanto in any way.

Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal on Thursday shot off a letter to Union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar asking him to allot more mega food parks in the state to provide impetus to agro-processing sector and benefit the farmers. The mega food parks, a flagship programme of the Ministry of Food Processing Industries, aims at boosting growth of food processing industry through facilitating establishment of food processing infrastructure backed by supply chain.

IMPHAL, April 26 – Power-starved Northeast States, including Manipur, should initiate steps to replicate the idea of tapping renewable power as in and around Maharashtra’s Nagpur city. This was shared by almost all the 20 journalists from Manipur and Arunachal Pradesh who recently toured Nagpur to witness the various agro-based power projects and others being taken up by Bharatiya Janata Party national president Nitin Gadkari under his Rs 500-crore Purti Group of companies.