Sharad Pawar says many states had asked him not to ban the pesticide Union agriculture minister Sharad Pawar is rooting for endosulfan just before the fifth Conference of Parties (COP) of the Stockholm Convention meets in Geneva from April 25 to April 30 to decide the fate of the pesticide. There seems to be a pattern in Pawar’s resistance to banning endosulfan. Replying to a question in the Lok Sabha on February...

According to the third advance estimate, India’s foodgrain production in the current farm year (to end in June 2011) will be a record 235.88 million tonnes, including an all-time high wheat output of 84.27 million tonnes against 81.47 million tonnes projected earlier. Ahead of the wheat harvest, the country had buffer foodgrain stock of 47 million tonnes at the start of 2011 in the central pool. A buffer close to double...

India is growing more wheat than it ever was. While other leading wheat producing countries like China and US are witnessing a decline in output, the country has stood as an exception with an estimated record production of 84.27 million tonnes of the staple foodgrain this year. Russia, Canada and Australia, too, are witnessing a downturn. “India is gaining internationally in the wheat production,” S S Singh, Project Director of Directorate of Wheat...

Janata Party president Subramanian Swamy on Thursday called upon anti-corruption campaigner Anna Hazare to distance himself from Congress president Sonia Gandhi who, he said, faced allegations of involvement in scams. It was ironical that Ms. Gandhi should express support for Mr. Hazare's fight against corruption, Dr. Swamy told journalists here. Pointing out that Mr. Hazare wanted Union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar to quit the committee formed to draft the Lokpal Bill because...

Conference of parties to Stockholm Convention begins in Geneva on April 25 The Kerala government will press the Centre to adopt a stand in favour of a global ban on the production and use of Endosulfan at a conference of parties to the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants beginning in Geneva on April 25. Chief Minister V.S. Achuthanandan said here on Monday that he would soon write to the Centre demanding...