New Delhi Commerce and industry minister Anand Sharma has mooted a new formula to the group of ministers (GoM) on pharma pricing to keep prices of essential medicines in check. Sharma recommended that the weighted average price of all drug brands that have more than 5% market share in a particular therapeutic segment should be fixed as the ceiling price of that particular drug.

State had sought . 2,281 crore for relief measures in 15 drought-hit districts. The union government has approved an assistance of Rs 575 crore to Maharashtra towards drought relief work. “The decision was taken on Friday by a high-level committee comprising finance minister Pranab Mukherjee, home minister P Chidambaram, agriculture minister Sharad Pawar and planning commission deputy chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia,” said an official who was part of the meeting.

Biotech industry’s propaganda is false

The only transgenic crop grown in India is Bt cotton developed by injecting a toxin from a soil bacterium called Bacillus Thuringiensis [Bt] into a cotton seed through a highly sophisticated process. When planted the seed produces a highly toxic cotton plant. Its roots, stem, leaves and boll continuously secrete Bt toxin.

New Delhi Congress MP Jyoti Mirdha on Friday urged the group of ministers on pharma pricing, headed by Union agriculture minister Sharad Pawar, to extend the regime of price control to all the drugs available in the retail market.

Mirdha argued that profits earned by pharma companies were primarily used in promotional expenses and for foray into other businesses. She claimed that top-50 pharma companies spend over R5,300 crore every year, while generating sales of slightly over R28,769 crore.

New Delhi: It’s a problem of plenty for dairy companies. Left with excess inventory of skimmed milk powder owing to the good monsoon in the last two years, dairy majors say growth will be hit this year, with most of them expecting lower profit margins compared to last year. India, which is the largest producer of milk in the world, currently has an excess of nearly 1.5 lakh tonnes of skimmed milk powder. Companies demand lifting of ban on exports of skimmed milk powder (SMP), which the government had imposed last year to tackle supply shortage.

What stops the government from using good harvests to reduce, if not eliminate, hunger?

Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan on Wednesday said a white paper on the irrigation situation in the state would be published within 15 days.
Talking to reporters after the weekly cabinet meeting, Chavan said though the issue of white paper was not on the agenda, it was discussed briefly. He declined to elaborate, only saying that the public needed to be informed about the status of irrigation.

The Centre is contemplating to hike retail prices of urea by 10 per cent. The proposal is likely to be put up before the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs soon for its consideration.

A panel, led by Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee, had last year approved a new draft urea policy, which proposed partial freeing of retail prices, allowing companies to hike urea prices by 10 per cent in the first year of policy implementation.

Pointing out that higher fertiliser subsidy on urea has led to unbalanced fertiliser usage in parts of the country, Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar on Tuesday sought the support from MPs to incentivise the subsidy towards balanced fertiliser usage. “Initially, the government focussed on enhancing fertiliser usage. As a result, agricultural productivity was increased by 50 per cent with the help of fertilisers during the first Green Revolution. But now we find that the increased fertiliser usage is not witnessing commensurate productivity increase.

Govt will not be able to acquire land for PPP infrastructure projects and private businesses, if House panel recommendations are accepted in proposed bill
Aparliamentary panel on Tuesday proposed tougher norms for acquiring land for industrial use, as it finalised the new Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Bill.