Chandigarh: With milk products worth about Rs 225 crore lying with Milkfed, it has requested Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal to ask the Centre to allow it to export certain milk products, it is learnt. During the past few months, Milkfed prepared 6,000 tonnes of dry milk powder of which about 2,000 tonnes is surplus. “I have told the CM that milk plants in the state will suffer losses if denied the export of dry milk powder”, said Parminder Singh Chalaki, chairman of the Mohali milk plant.

MADURAI: A week-long inspection by the Food Safety and Drug Administration Department at the hostel inside the Government Rajaji Hospital (GRH) revealed that unhygienic living conditions, poor maintenance of water tanks and supply of contaminated food were to blame for the recent outbreak of diarrhoea among nursing students.

On Thursday, when a team from the department checked the hostel canteen, they found that cool drinks and milk products in the refrigerator were contaminated.

New Delhi With no political consensus as yet to allow the foreign direct investment (FDI) in multi-brand retail, India needs to undertake structural reforms urgently to curb food inflation that surged to a 15-month high of 10.49% in April on dearer vegetables and protein-based products.

Economists said these reforms should focus on four fundamental aspects: raising productivity, curbing wastages, better distribution and delivery system, and ensuring fair returns to producers to keep them engaged in the farm sector.

Chandigarh: Like record wheat harvest, the production of milk, too, is unusually high this year. But that hasn’t brought smiles on the faces of dairy farmers who are reeling under the ban imposed on the export of skimmed milk powder. As a result, most private players in the industry are not ready to buy milk from dairy farmers. This, in turn, has burdened Milkfed, Punjab’s dairy cooperative, which can’t say no to milk procurement. The Milkfed and two other big companies have been forced to buy excess milk.

Expressing grave concern over the reports about manufacturing of “synthetic” milk emanating from various parts of the states close to the national capital, where supply of such milk could not be ruled out, the Supreme Court on Wednesday issued notices to the Centre and six states seeking reports on the issue.

A bench of Chief Justice of India S.H. Kapaidia and Justices A.K. Patnaik and Swatanter Kumar issued the notices to the Centre and states of Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Punjab, Haryana and Uttarakhand asking them to file affidavits specifying action taken by them to check the supply of spurious milk and milk products within four weeks.

Barely 24 hours before Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is scheduled to reconvene a meeting to discuss policies on export of farm products and storage of grains, the government has conceded another major demand of Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar by allowing export of caesin, a value-added milk product.

“Export of casein and casein products has been moved from the ‘prohibited’ to ‘restricted’ category. Export of casein is now permitted under licence,” an official statement issued tonight said. The government had banned exports of casein and milk powder in February last year, following a fall in the domestic supply of milk.

India is third in egg production and fourth in chicken output

Vice Chancellor of the Tamil Nadu Veterinary and Animal Sciences University (TANUVAS) Dr. R. Prabakaran said that veterinarians have played a major role in placing India atop the world in milk production, third in egg production and fourth in chicken meat production.

VADODARA: Your morning cup of tea would not fire up your sleepy senses without a little milk in it, and yet a debate has been stirred up on what should be India's national drink - tea or milk.

On Saturday, deputy chairman of Planning Commission Montek Singh Ahluwalia announced in Jorhat, the tea capital of India, that tea will be given that place of pride by April next year.

Anand: The first phase of National Dairy Plan (NDP), the ambitious scheme to double India’s milk production, was launched at the headquarters of National Dairy Development Board (NDDB) in the country’s milk capital here on Thursday.

Launched as ‘Mission Milk’, NDP proposes to usher in country’s second White Revolution. Since 1998, India has already emerged as world’s largest milk producer.

Ahmedabad: Cold treats seem to be a hit with Amdavadis. The city consumes more ice-cream than bigger cities like Mumbai and Pune, says a report by the Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry (Assocham). The report says almost 35% of ice-cream sold in India is savoured by the western region — Gujarat, Rajasthan, Maharashtra and Goa. And, Ahmedabad tops the list in the region. The group’s report takes into account countrywide consumption between April and December 2011.