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Thursday,
March 28, 2002, Chandigarh, India  
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Announcement
on IOC, RPL marketing deal likely today Hudco to
disburse 6000 cr this year Now
govt’s focus on horticulture Need for
varietal diversification in farming |
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Consolidation
of land holdings must: Nabard Genesis
of procurement agencies’ losses IA
approves proposal for 43 aircraft
Ericsson,
Bharti sign pact for mobile Internet
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Announcement on IOC, RPL marketing deal likely today
New Delhi, March 27 Petroleum Ministry is understood to have assured the officials of Reliance and IOC to clarify some of the issues relating to Central Sales Tax and subsidies in the context of free pricing mechanism before dismantling of the Administered Pricing Mechanism (APM) from April 1, government sources said. Some of the issues relating to post-administered pricing mechanism, including regulator for the downstream refining and marketing sector, came up for discussion during the meeting of the Chairman and Managing Directors (CMDs) and directors of oil PSUs, convened by Petroleum Minister Ram Naik here today. Those attending the meeting included IOC Chairman M.A. Pathan, Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) CMD Subir Raha, Gas Authority of India Ltd CMD Prashanto Banerjee, Hindustan Petroleum Corporation CMD H.L. Zutshi and BPCL CMD S. Sunderajan. Post-APM issues such as pricing of transport fuels — petrol and diesel — and developing a mechanism of adjustment of product prices based on import parity levels periodically and options available for insulating the domestic markets from volatilities of international crude market were discussed at the meeting, sources said. When contacted, Naik told PTI that “all announcements relating to the deregulated market mechanism will be made at a press conference tomorrow.”
PTI
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Hudco to disburse 6000 cr this year New Delhi, March 27 The MoU, signed by Hudco Chairman and Managing Director V. Suresh and Ministry Secretary S.S. Chattopadhyay, provides for the construction of over one million houses in both urban and rural areas. It provides for a significant growth in Hudco’s operations during the year and also outlines the growth strategies, a release said, adding that a total sanction of Rs 8,900 crore for housing and urban infrastructure development was being provided for. Hudco would disburse Rs 6,000 crore during 2002-2003 for housing and urban infrastructure development. The additional activities proposed during the year include establishment of Hudco Haats in all states and housing and building technology exhibition cum guidance centres, establishment of habitat centres in state capitals and major cities, strengthening of building centre movement to cover all uncovered districts, enhancement of Hudco consultancy activities, etc.
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Now govt’s focus on horticulture Chandigarh, March 27 The areas under fruit crops in the state stood about 34,000 hectares (March 2001) with the production of 4.88 lakh metric tonnes of fresh fruits. While the area potatoes was 71,515 hectares, vegetables covered 77,370 hectares. “The area under horticulture in the state currently is only 2 per cent of the total cropped area. According to our assessment, this can go upto 10 per cent of the total within a short time period”, stated an official. With this target in mind, five citrus estates — two each in Ferozepur and Hoshiarpur and one in Faridkot; a grape estate in Bathinda and a litchi estate in Gurdaspur have been established. These estates will work as independent bodies and will provide assistance to the farmers in all functions from production stage to disposal including procurement of plant material, fertilizers, pesticides and also in marketing and storage. Within five years, the plan is to provide Rs 10 crore (Rs 2 crore to each of the five citrus estates), said sources. The Citrus Production and Development Centre established at Hoshiarpur for the purpose is the first one in the country of the total 17 such centres that are to be established. For promoting mushroom cultivation, the department will supply pasteurized spawned compost to the farmers at a nominal rate of Rs 2.50 per kg. In case of floriculture, emphasis is being laid on production of seed. The department is also planning to provide subsidy on machinery required for production of seed where drying is extremely important. While horticulture apart from helping in diversification, will help growers fetch better value for their produce ( the products being of high value), several constraints will have to be overcome for encouragement to this sector. According to Nabard there are constraints in bankable schemes due to long gestation period of horticulture crops and the activity being mostly taken up on small holdings. The bank has suggested proper co-ordination between the extension staff of the horticulture department, PAU, banks and other nodal agencies in the state, encouragement to the farmers to take up short gestation crops like strawberry, floriculture, mushrooms etc. A positive approach has to be adopted in order to improve credit flow in this priority sector of agriculture, the bank suggested.
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Need for varietal diversification in farming Rice, wheat rotation remains the predominant cropping system in the northwestern part of the
Indo-Gangetic plains comprising Punjab, Haryana and western Uttar Pradesh. The introduction of high-yielding varieties in the post green revolution period made the rotation most productive. It became attractive to the growers because of its being highly profitable. Thanks to abundant irrigation, fertile soil, productive varieties and hard-working farmers, the area became the most agriculturally developed region of the country. Productivity levels especially in Punjab, are comparable to those of world’s highest yield regions. The per hectare yield of rice has crossed 35 quintals and that of wheat 47 quintals. Declining productivity growth and profit margins being experienced lately and the high buffer stocks have raised doubts as to the sustainability of the system. Macro and micro-level analysis reveals nearly stagnating productivity growth of both major crops. The productivity level, according to experts here, is approaching harvestable potential. A former consultant of the International Rice Research Institute, Manila, Dr Gurdev S. Khush says, “Whereas there is very little room for raising further the productivity of wheat, there was still a scope to raise the rice yield substantially through adoption of hybrid technology. Although hybrid rice does not seem to be promising in the immediate future because of the high production costs of seeds and lack of research in this field.” The system which has sustained the farming community for four decades is now faced with challenges for its decline. Reluctance of the government to increase the procurement price and its proposed withdrawal from buying stocks are real threats to its economic sustainability. On the other hand the persistent demand from the farmer lobby for higher minimum support price year after year is the reflection of the fact that the system is becoming economically more and more unattractive. Buffer stocks of food grains exceeding what is required and the impending arrival of food grains from outside following the opening up of our market, will result in reducing returns for the farmers further. Thereby the condition of the farming community will be more miserable. Diversification of the system is being suggested as a solution to save fertile land and water resources from the exhaustive nature of the system. The demand for wheat and rice in international market has also come down in the recent past. The strategy is aimed at hitting the system and do away with it as far as possible. The IRRI expert has suggested varietal diversification instead of crop diversification as a short-term measure. The cultivation of Basmati varieties instead of coarse and fine varieties of rice and durums in place of the existing common wheat varieties will certainly ease the situation. It will open export avenues. It will enable the government to carefully plan whether the cultivation of new Basmati varieties which give much more profits to the growers should be encouraged in place of the existing high yielding varieties. A team of experts needs to be sent abroad to explore the markets for Basmati rice obtained from these varieties. Dr Khush says that maize and oil seed crops can replace rice-wheat rotation gradually. Little has been done to push the cultivation of these crops in the region. Considering the unlimited opportunities in the global market for the Basmati rice and better qualities of wheat the policy makers should evolve a realistic short-term and long-term strategies to replace the rice-wheat system.
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Consolidation of land holdings must: Nabard Chandigarh, March 27 The seminar was conducted with a view to promote an integrated and co-ordinated approach among all partners of rural development and provide solution to the practical problems faced at grassroot level by implementing agencies encompassing planning, monitoring and co-ordination. Mr Ramanathan said the role of farmers in heralding green and white revolution could not be ignored and in the liberalised era it was all set to leapfrog in commercialisation of agriculture. However, 73 per cent of the farming community processes land holdings that were less than four hectares.
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Genesis of procurement agencies’ losses Chandigarh, March 27 A special inspection of 32 rice mills in Fatehgarh Sahib and Ropar districts, regarding purchase of paddy (1999-2000 to 2001-02), has revealed that a sum of Rs 92.95 crore was due from just one miller, reported to be Laxmi Overseas Industries Ltd., Khamano. Interestingly, the Corporation’s Chief Manager, Procurement, sent guidelines for allotment of shellers for 20001-02 to all district managers, on behalf of the Managing Director, Mr Arun Goel on July 20, 2001. He joined the corporation in 1999. One of the four guidelines prescribed was that ‘’the rice millers, which are defaulters of the previous years, should not get allotted until they clear their previous defaults’’. Yet, this guideline was violated with impunity by none else than the Chief Manager, Procurement, under whose supervision the allotment was made. The Laxmi Overseas Industries, Khamano, was allotted paddy worth Rs 60.20 crore for crop year, 2001-02, despite the fact that ‘out turn rice’ valued around Rs 6.87 crore (1999-2000) and Rs 25.88 crore for (2000-01) was already due from it. Some times back, the Corporation’s vigilance wing had swung into action and lodged 46 FIRs against the defaulter millers, who owed PSWC Rs 43 crore. But Khamano mill was left out. Interestingly, approximately Rs 100 crore are due from the millers, who number around 400, in the entire state. Informed sources say that since Khamano miller reportedly enjoyed political patronage, not only no FIR was lodged against it but it continued to be given paddy despite outstanding dues of Rs 92.95 crore. Sources admitting revealing that most of the violation of rules, financial irregularities, shortages in stock, pilferage, damage or disappearance of trucks etc. happened with the connivance of staff. PSWC is only one of the state agencies engaged in procurement of food grains and suffering losses. Ironically, no responsibility has ever been fixed on any managing director in any of the corporations for incurring such losses. PSWC alone procures around 12 lakh tonnes each of paddy and wheat in the season. No wonder, there exist irregularities to the tune of Rs 2,400 crore in the cash-credit limit for procurement of food grains in Punjab. This limit is allowed by the Reserve Bank of India for paddy and wheat purchases by the state and its agencies. In the past few years, this sum was misutilised for meeting essential expenditure as revealed in the ‘White paper’ presented to the Vidhan Sabha on March 25.
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IA approves proposal for 43 aircraft
New Delhi, March 27 This was cleared by the I A Board of Directors after considering a report of the Sub-Committee set up by it to go into the matter, an official release said. A report is being sent by the I A Board to the Civil Aviation Ministry seeking clearance of the proposal. The sub-committee had recommended acquisition of 43 Airbus with various sitting capacity.
PTI
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Adani Exports Tata Engineering Amartex Knoll Pharma S.C. Jain UTI Bank Essar group |
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