India likely to import wheat
New Delhi: India is likely to import wheat to keep prices under control, Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar on Friday said. He said the government has decided to permit duty free import of wheat till Dec 31, 2007.

He added that it has also been been decided that the government will import, if necessary, adequate quantities of wheat to meet the requirements of the public distribution system and other welfare schemes.

Wheat production, which was 69.5 million tonnes in 2006-07, lower by 1.5 million tonnes as compared to 72.5 million tones in the year before, has become a matter of concern for the government.
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Inflation continues to climb
New Delhi: Inflation soared to 6.46 per cent in the week ended March 3, primarily due to rise in vegetable and cement prices, the latest government data shows.

However, the recent monetary and fiscal measures to contain inflation, base effect and political compulsions would result in inflation coming off to five per cent levels by May, global financial services giant Citigroup said.

Inflation has been a major concern for the government as well as consumers since it breached RBI's target of 5.5 per cent in October and touched a high of 6.73 per cent in the week ended February 3. Analysts said inflation is likely to remain high over the next two months.
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Wheat farmers get Rs100 surprise bonus
New Delhi: The Centre has declared a surprise bonus of Rs100 per quintal over and above the minimum support price (MSP) of Rs750 for the 2006-07 wheat crop to be marketed from April 1. Farmers would effectively get Rs850 per quintal, against Rs700 for last year's crop, which included an MSP of Rs650 and a bonus of Rs50.

The Rs100 bonus, announced by the Agriculture Minister, Mr Sharad Pawar, in Parliament, has come as a surprise because the original proposal before the Union Cabinet was for a payment between Rs25 and Rs75 per quintal.

Sources said the extra Rs25 seems to have been promoted by next month's assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh.

The latest bonus means that since the present Government has taken over, the effective procurement price has gone up by Rs220 per quintal. But the same period has also seen a huge depletion in public wheat stocks, which, at 57.29 lakh tonnes (lt) as on January 1, were about 25 lt below the minimum buffer norm for that date.
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Nandigram fall out: all SEZ projects put on hold in W Bengal
Kolkata: The West Bengal government has put all Special Economic Zones (SEZ) in the state on hold until a "socially balanced" decision was taken in this regard at the national level.
Presenting the state budget for 2007-08 in the assembly, Finance Minister Ashim Dasgupta said there was a necessity to take steps for setting up large industries in consultation with people with a necessary balance of agriculture and payment of compensation for land acquired for projects.

The state government's decision came two days after a major flare-up of violence at Nandigram in East Midnapore district, where 14 people died after police opened fire on people opposed to the acquisition of their land for a proposed SEZ.
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