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.

The government today lifted the ban on cotton exports and allowed fresh registration for the cotton marketing year ending September 30, based on the revised production estimates provided by the Cot

Committee to review demand-supply situation after three weeks to prevent abnormal rise in prices

The commerce ministry has decided to lift the ban on export of cotton and allow traders to apply afresh for registration. The ban was lifted barely hours before Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was scheduled to chair a meeting on export of farm products, including cotton. However, the Prime Minister’s meeting was later postponed.

New Delhi The government is set to lift a ban on fresh cotton export registration, although efforts to resolve the controversial issue amicably by putting a cap on further shipments eluded a consensus on Sunday, a day before the meeting convened by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to discuss farm exports.

While agriculture minister Sharad Pawar is pitching for the complete removal of ban on fresh export registration in the year through September, finance minister Pranab Mukherjee and commerce and textile minister Anand Sharma are in favour of allowing fresh licences up to two million bales to balance the interest of farmers with textile mills, sources said.

The Senate Agriculture Committee on Thursday approved a proposed five-year farm bill that seeks to make steep cuts to subsidies while expanding government crop-insurance programs.

To attract investments, Maharashtra has rolled out a red carpet for the Gujarat textile sector. State textile minister Naseem Khan plans to lead a high level delegation to Ahmedabad in May to ask the textile industry in Gujarat to invest in Maharashtra in order to take the benefit of the newly released textile policy and the sops offered for development of textile parks in the state.

Maharashtra textile policy offers a 10 per cent capital subsidy for new textile projects in Vidarbha, Marathwada and north Maharashtra, and 12.5 per cent interest subsidy on long-term loans linked to centrally-sponsored Technology Upgradation Fund Scheme for new projects.

A coalition of more than 2,000 U.S.

Acerage down on low yield, weak prices & export curbs

Coinciding with global anti-GMO (Genetically Modified Organism) Week, a group of women farmers in Medak district of AP took out a rally to protest against the state government’s failure to check th

Indian cotton farmers should not be asked to bear burden of subsidising textile mills, says Pawar