The first ‘wool bank’ in the North East is likely to be set up here in the capital city of Meghalaya with the Central Wool Development Board (CWDB) and Indian Chamber of Commerce (ICC) working towards it in coordination with the State Government, officials said today. “Meghalaya has a great potential in this regard like other Northeastern States and we deserve to have wool industry or bank in different States of the region,” Deputy Chief Minister BM Lanong said while speaking at a round table discussion on creation of wool bank in NE States.

Ludhiana: With export of wool and wool blended items from the country dropping 12 per cent (in rupee terms) in 2010-11, the Wool and Woollens Export Promotion Council (WWEPC) has requested to the Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Textiles to fextend the duty exemption pass book (DEPB) scheme. The scheme is due to expire on September 30.

The State Government is going to exchange male sheep of Kumaon and Garhwal regions in order to promote outbreeding among the said species in view of their declining strength and poor production of wool per sheep over the years.

PASHMINA is Kashmiri: India granted, on September 12, the Geographical Indicat-ion (GI) status to Pashmina yarn, produced in th Kashmir valley by Tahfuz (a body of all Kashmiri handicraft artisans). Islamabad filed an objection claiming that the fine wool is also produced in Pakistan. A consultative committee of the Geographical Indication Registry of India rejected Pakistan

The Australian wool industry recently said that it had dropped court action against an animal rights group after it agreed to end its campaign to boycott retailers selling Australian wool. The

Bad cropping practices and ill planned water management leads to salted Australian farmland