Wheat farmers may get Rs50/quintal bonus
New Delhi: The current wheat crop situation following rains in the growing areas since Saturday will soon be assessed by an empowered group of ministers (EGoM) and the group may also take a decision on announcing a bonus for procurement of wheat by the government agencies for buffer stocks.

Punjab and Haryana have demanded a price of Rs850 a quintal for procuring wheat and the Punjab Chief Minister, Prakash Singh Badal, has also met the prime minister, Dr Manmohan Singh, to seek higher price for wheat.

The EGoM is likely to clear the payment of Rs50 a quintal as bonus to farmers for selling wheat to the procurement agencies. This will be in addition to the MSP of Rs750 a quintal declared by the Government in November.

The Centre may also agree on the bonus in view of elections to the Uttar Pradesh Assembly. The first leg of the polls will be held on April 7.

Last year, the Centre had paid a bonus of Rs50 over the MSP of Rs 650 a quintal. However, the decision came on April 21 and by that time, the farmers sold off their produce to private trade.

Against a target to procure 160 lakh tonnes for buffer stocks, the Centre was able to buy only 93 lakh tonnes.
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Industrial production up 10.9 pc in Jan
New Delhi: Data from the Central Statistical Organisation revealed that industrial production increased by 10.9 per cent in January, compared to 8.5 per cent reported in January 2006.

The overall performance was boosted by a three-fold improvement in mining output and robust growth in manufacturing and intermediate goods. The cumulative growth rate during the April-January period stood at 11 per cent, compared to eight per cent in the same period last fiscal.

However, capital goods output decelerated considerable in January this year. While capital goods output had increased by 27 per cent in January 2006, the figure is down to 8.6 per cent this year. Fluctuations in the growth pattern of the capital goods sector have been a prominent trend in most months of the current fiscal.

In August, growth in this sector was 14.7 per cent, but it fell to a low of 2.2 per cent in September. It rose again in October to 8.2 per cent and then to 25.7 per cent in November, before sliding a bit to 20.2 per cent in December.

The increase in production of consumer goods during January 2007 stood at 9.9 per cent.
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Railways to put 500 acres of land to commercial use
New Delhi: The Indian Railway plans to offer over 500 acres of prime land to private developers at over 13 locations across the country. The organisation has earmarked land in Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, and Bangalore, apart from Lucknow, Vishakapatnam, Gwalior and Gaya for the purpose.

The newly set up Rail Land Development Authority (RLDA), formed to commercially exploit the large tracts of land available with the Indian Railways, will offer the land through a public-private partnership (PPP) model.

Under the PPP model, the railways will form joint ventures in which the land will represent the railways' portion of the equity. The plots will be developed for commercial use in the form of shopping malls, office space, plazas and multiplexes.

A consultant is being appointed to work out the details of the project. The sites were shortlisted from an earlier list of 61 locations at an RLDA board meeting a few days ago.

In Delhi, land around the Sarai Rohilla railway station has been earmarked for development. Belgharia and Bidhan Nagar are the two sites in Kolkata. The other locations in West Bengal are Halishahar, Balighat and Kanchrapara.
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