Ministry of Food Processing Industries does not undertake research and development projects on its own, however, the Ministry under the Scheme of R&D, extends financial assistance as grant-in-aid to various Universities, IITs, Central/ State Government Institutions, Government funded organizations, R&D laboratories and CSIR recognized R&D units in private sector to promote and undertake demand driven R&D work in food processing sector including food processing industries for product & process development, design and development of equipment, improved storage, shelf-life, packaging etc. R&D projects of Government organizations/ Institutions are eligible for 100% grant-in-aid for the cost of equipment, consumables and expenditure related to Research Fellows, etc. while private Organizations/ Institutions/ Universities are eligible for 50% grant-in-aid for the equipment cost in general areas and 70% grant-in-aid in difficult areas.  The budget allocation for Research and Development scheme for the current financial year, i.e., 2021-2022 is Rs.7.60 Cr.

 

This information was given by Minister of State for M/o Food Processing Industries, Shri Prahlad Singh Patel in a written reply in Lok Sabha today

Food Minister Sadhan Chandra Majumder said rice import duty may be brought down to 10 per cent in need to prevent the price volatility in the market.

 

The existing import duty on rice is nearly 62.5 per cent.

 

'Rice prices have been rising continually even though the country has produced a record volume of rice, imported a handsome amount of rice and also has 2.0 million tonnes of food in stock,' he told a view-exchange meeting titled ‘Illegal hoarding and initiative to prevent it’ at the Rajshahi Deputy Commissioner’s office on Monday.

 

'We are monitoring the situation at the field level to find out the reasons for this,' he said, adding that accurate information from the field level would be very useful in adopting an action plan on controlling the market volatility.

 

Indicating that illegal hoardings are leading to a rice price rise in the market, he called on food officials, district administrations, and traders, to come up with information about them so that the government can take action against them.

 

The food minister also asked food officials to verify rice mill stocks on a weekly basis and to check out information on rice grinding and supply on a regular basis.

 

Those representing millers at the views exchange meeting said no rice price rises have taken place at the mill gates for the last three months though the production and transportation costs of rice notably increased in recent months.

 

'Prices of rice have not increased at the mill gates for the last three months,' said Nirad Baran Saha, a Naogaon-based miller who is among those representing the region’s millers at the meeting. He added that rice prices have increased at the consumers' end as it reaches them after exchanging four to five hands.

 

Another rice millers’ representative Belal Hossain said hundreds of people started rice trading during the pandemic. They have been hoarding rice and paddy in large volumes creating an artificial shortage in the market.

 

He called on the government to strictly monitor the activities of such traders to prevent a further rise in rice prices.

 

Lawmaker Md Ain Uddin, Food Secretary Dr Mosammat Nazmanara Khanum, Director General of Food Directorate Md Sakhawat Hossain also spoke at the views exchange meeting organised by Rajshahi Divisional and District Administration with Divisional commissioner GSM Zafarullah in the chair.

In a historic achievement, Jammu & Kashmir became the first Union Territory to be onboarded the National Single Window System (NSWS). This marks a major leap in Ease of Doing Business (EoDB) in the Union Territory.

 

Lieutenant Governor Shri Manoj Sinha launched the J&K Single Window Clearance System integrated with NSWS yesterday in the presence of Shri Arun Kumar Mehta, Chief Secretary, Govt of J&K, Ms. Sumita Dawra, Additional Secretary, DPIIT, Shri Ranjan Thakur, Principal Secretary Industries & Commerce, Govt of J&K.

 

NSWS is linked with India Industrial Land Bank (IILB) which hosts 45 industrial parks of J&K. This will help Investors to discover available land parcels in J&K.

 

The NSWS, a 2020 budgetary announcement of the Government of India, is a digital platform that serves as a guide for investors to identify and to apply for approvals as per their business requirements. The platform was soft launched in September 2021 by the Union Minister for Commerce and Industry, Textiles and Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution, Shri Piyush Goyal. 

 

NSWS will eliminate the need for investors to visit multiple platforms/offices to gather information and obtain clearances from different stakeholders.

 

Twenty Ministries / Departments have been integrated on NSWS including Ministry of Corporate Affairs, Ministry of Environment, Forest & Climate Change, Ministry of Commerce & Industry, Ministry of Health & Family Welfare amongst others. Currently 142 central approvals can be applied through the NSWS portal.

 

14 States/UTs onboarded on NSWS include Andhra Pradesh, Goa, Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Odisha, Punjab, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Uttar Pradesh, and Uttarakhand.

 

The Know Your Approval (KYA) module on NSWS guides investors to identify approvals required for their business based on a dynamic intuitive questionnaire. Currently, the module hosts more than 3,000 approvals across Centre & States.

 

As on date, the portal has 16,800 visitors, out of which 7,500 KYA journeys have been serviced. More than 1,250 investors are registered on the portal.

 

The NSWS platform can be accessed at www.nsws.gov.in.

 

South Korea's leading feedmaker Nonghyup Feed Inc. (NOFI) has issued an international tender to purchase up to 138,000 tonnes of animal feed corn and up to 130,000 tonnes of animal feed wheat, European traders said on Monday.

 

The deadline for submission of price offers in the tender is also Monday, Feb. 7.

 

The corn is sought for May arrival in South Korea and the feed wheat for arrival in May and June.

The FSSAI has allowed FBOs to use old or new names of pro-biotic strains on the labels till further order. This will help the food businesses to use old labels without any apprehension of action from the food authority.

 

The order reads, 'After due consideration of the representations, it has been decided to allow the use of either old, or new names of pro-biotic strains for the product packaging till further order, as it does not compromise with the safety of food products and also allowed by other regulators across the globe.'

 

The stakeholder FBOs gave a representation before the FSSAI to permit the use of either old or new names of pro-biotic strains for the product packaging as the taxonomy of several pro-biotic microorganisms specified under Schedule VII of the FSS  (health supplements, nutraceuticals, food for special dietary use, food for special medical purpose, functional food and novel food) First Amendment Regulations 2021 have been revised in line with the global updating in their names.

 

And the amendment made provision that these organisms may be used either singly or in combination but shall be declared on the label with full information and have to be non-GMO.

 

It is pertinent to mention that the regulation in question was notified in September 2021 and subsequent direction in October made the provisions that the timeline for compliance related to labelling requirement be extended to July 1, 2022.

Australian trade minister Dan Tehan will visit India on February 10 to hold talks with commerce & industry minister Piyush Goyal for an interim trade deal that is at an advanced stage of fruition, sources told FE.

 

In December, both the countries decided to expedite the pace of negotiations for the early-harvest deal, which will be followed up with a broader free trade agreement (FTA).

 

The FTA will cover a broad range of areas, including goods, services, investments, government procurement, logistics, standards and rules of origin. Goyal has been striving to get duty concession for Indian products in critical sectors, including agriculture and textiles, and greater market access in pharmaceuticals.

 

India had a merchandise trade deficit of $4.2 billion with Australia in FY21, as it shipped out goods worth over only $4 billion, while bilateral trade stood at $12.3 billion. Major traded items include mineral fuels, pharmaceutical products, organic chemicals and gems & jewellery.

 

The negotiations with Australia are a part of India’s broader strategy to forge 'fair and balanced' trade agreements with key economies and revamp existing pacts to boost trade.

 

The move gained traction after India pulled out of the China-dominated RCEP (Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership) talks in November 2019.

 

Goyal had last held talks with Tehan on February 4. 'Had a productive discussion with Australian Trade Minister as part of the ongoing deliberations on the India-Australia CECA,' Goyal had tweeted. 'Significant progress on ways to increase trade & investments have been made to further enhance our bilateral relationship.'

 

Balanced FTAs are expected to also enable the country to take advantage of a resurgence of industrial demand in advanced economies and achieve sustained growth rates in exports in the coming years. Already, India has set an ambitious merchandise export target of $1 trillion by FY28.

 

In the current fiscal, it’s on course to realise the lofty export target of $400 billion, against $291 billion in FY21.

 

Although talks for an FTA with Australia have been going on since 2011, the reluctance of Indian industry to offer greater access in farm and dairy products and Australia’s unwillingness to further open up its services sector for free movement of skilled Indian professionals have delayed the outcome of the negotiations.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday said the government is making a push for organic farming and digital agriculture to protect farmers from the impact of climate change, for which it has made special provisions in this year’s Union Budget.

 

'To save our farmers from climate challenge, our focus is on the fusion of both back to basics and march to future. Our focus is on more than 80 per cent of small farmers of the country who need us the most. The Union Budget 2022-23 is focused on organic farming and digital agriculture,' he said at the International Crops Research Institute for Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) in Hyderabad.

 

PM Modi is in Hyderabad today to unveil the Statue of Equality and kickstart the 50th anniversary celebrations of agricultural research organisation ICRISAT. The prime minister also inaugurated ICRISAT’s Climate Change Research Facility on Plant Protection and Rapid Generation Advancement Facility.

 

PM Modi noted that over the last five decades, ICRISAT has helped other nations in making agriculture easy and sustainable, and expressed the hope that the organisation would continue to do the same to strengthen India’s farming sector.

 

He also said that digital agriculture is the future of our mostly agrarian country and the government is making efforts to utilise digital technology to empower farmers.

 

Furthermore, the Centre is also focused on building Farmer Producer Organizations (FPO) to strengthen the entire agriculture value chain. 'By organising the small farmers of the country into thousands of FPOs, we want to make them an aware and big market force,' the prime minister said.

 

PM Modi said climate action was given more importance in this year's Union Budget and it reflects India’s commitment towards 'green future'.

 

'Taking forward years of efforts, climate action was given more importance in this year’s budget. This year's budget encourages India’s commitment towards a green future in every sector,' he said.

 

Touting the government’s sustainability goals, PM Modi said India has set a target of net-zero carbon emissions by 2070. He also underlined the importance of adopting the Pro Planet People movement to combat challenges posed by climate change.

 

'We have also highlighted the need for life- lifestyle for the environment and also called for a Pro Planet People movement - a movement that is crucial to combat climate change and connects every individual with climate,' he added.

Stating that the budget 2023 is more directional with a quarter of a century of sustained growth in mind, Commerce and Industry minister Piyush Goyal on Saturday sought to deflect criticism in certain quarters that the government focused more on the supply-side than on growth-boosting demand side of the economy.

 

On February 1, the government presented a budget with no tax increases and thus no new revenue generation measures but chose to do record borrowings to fund a budgeted 35 per cent increased capital investment at Rs 7.5 lakh crore and also offered an additional Rs 1 lakh crore to the states for capital investment in interest-free loans. Together with the states, the overall capital expenditure next fiscal will be at a record high of Rs 10.5 lakh crore. This will have the government borrowing hitting a historic high with gross borrowing at Rs 14.95 lakh crore and net borrowing of Rs 11.6 lakh crore.

 

Demand has been the biggest missing link in the economy even before the pandemic hit the nation and scuppered the last strain of demand as those who had money chose to save and not splurge while tens of millions became jobless. 'I am surprised at the criticism in a section of the industry that the budget is supply-side focused while what was more needed was boosting demand. The fact is that this is a direction setting budget, with clear focus on the macro as well as micro issues plaguing the economy. Such a focus will lead to faster and deeper trickle-down effect. Because through this budget, government wants to work towards a much brighter future for everyone by the time we celebrate the first century of our independence,' Goyal told a post-budget gathering of industry representatives organized by the BSE.

 

Those criticizing the budget are missing the key point that most of the time supply side push also creates demand as a resilient supply-chain is crucial to secure sustained growth over the long-term. 'So when we are pumping in so much money in capex (Rs 7.5 lakh crore by the Centre and Rs 3 lakh crore by the states, which is the biggest demand push any government has given in a year,) there will be all-round demand generation in all key sectors of the economy be it cement, steel or other metals which will an impact on overall demand too,' he explained.

 

Moving on to exports, which are already a record high by crossing USD 336 billion by January, he said he is doing everything to ensure that we cross the USD 400 billion target set for the next fiscal by mid-way. Towards this the government is speeding up free trade talks with key nations such as Britain, Canada and Australia and also began with the GCC nations. 'On the FTA with the UK you will have positive surprises in a few days while with Australia it is being worked out on a priority basis. Recently the GCC grouping also expressed interest in inking a free trade agreement with us,' Goyal said.

 

'That we’ve been earning over USD30 billion in each of the ten months of the fiscal is a clear indication that our competitiveness has gone up,' he said, adding our services industry is also on course to net USD240 billion this fiscal.

 

Going forward our export story will be a race to the top—a race between the services and merchandise exports both have to race clock USD 1 trillion each over the next five-six years when the economy will be a USD 5 trillion giant. The minister also urged the industry, exporters in particular to be more demanding from the government in general and him specifically, so that he can make better bargains with other nations while engaging in trade negotiations.

Sugar mills exported 30.68 lakh tonne sugar till January of the ongoing 2021-22 marketing year that started from October 1, trade body AISTA said on Monday. About 6.32 lakh tonne sugar is in transit, All India Sugar Trade Association (AISTA) said in a statement.

 

Mills have contracted to export 46 lakh tonne sugar without the government subsidy so far in the 2021-22 marketing year, it added. Sugar marketing year runs from October to September.

 

Sugar exports this year are being undertaken without the government subsidy.

 

According to AISTA, mills exported total 30,68,697 tonne sugar from October 2021 to January this year.

 

'Indian sugar mills continue to get the premium on their sugar and have sold in the range of 19.5 to 20 cents per pound equivalent,' it said.

 

Mills in Maharashtra and Karnataka have sold raw sugar at Rs 31-31.80 per kg, it added.

 

The trade body also mentioned that the international sugar prices are hovering around 18.25 cents per pound.

 

The market trends should depend upon the sugar production estimates and weather conditions in the coming months in Brazil as well as Brazilian gasoline policy, it added.

 

Expressing concern over shortage of rail wagons for sugar transportation for export purpose, AISTA said mills in Maharashtra and Karnataka continue to face the problem of railway wagons as sugar for export is mainly getting lifted from these states only.

 

During the 2020-21 marketing year, the country had exported a record 7.23 million tonne sugar. The maximum shipments were undertaken with the help of government subsidy.

Maldives has initiated the process of granting Indian Nationals visa free entry for business purposes, for a period not exceeding the visa free period of 90 days beginning February 1.

 

This is m stipulated in the Agreement on the Facilitation of Visa Arrangements between the Government of Maldives and the Government of India signed in December 2018.