New Delhi: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has called a meeting on Monday to deliberate on the objections raised by Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar over export of farm commodities such as sugar and cotton. The Prime Minister will chair two meetings on Monday, one of them would be on agricultural products, Commerce and Industry Minister Anand Sharma told reporters in New Delhi on Sunday. Pawar had earlier said, "There is no...
06:53 PM, Apr 29, 2012
Chennai: Defence Minister on Sunday met DMK Chief M Karunanidhi as part of consultation process among UPA allies on the Presidential election to arrive at a consensus leader to succeed incumbent Pratibha Patil, who is retiring on July 25. After more than an hour-long meeting, Antony told reporters that he would convey the DMK leader's views on the issue to Congress President Sonia Gandhi. After meeting Karunanidhi, Antony said, "I...
11:26 AM, Apr 29, 2012
Belgaum:Former chief minister B S Yeddyurappa is expected to meet Union Agriculture Minister and Nationalist Congress Party president Sharad Pawar in the first week of May, for reasons that have not come out in the open yet. However, sources said that Yeddyurappa is planning to give a shock to the BJP national executive, which has not considered his request for a suitable position in the partys hierarchy favourably. An MLC...
10:24 AM, Apr 26, 2012
New Delhi: The Congress on Wednesday began the consultation process with its allies on the issue of next President with party chief Sonia Gandhi holding deliberations with NCP chief Sharad Pawar on the issue. Sources said that the Congress leadership will also be consulting DMK chief M Karunanidhi on the issue any time next week. A senior Congress functionary, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said that consulations on the...
01:11 AM, Apr 26, 2012
New Delhi: India is facing a problem of plenty. The Food Corporation of India (FCI) is anticipating an unprecedented storage problem in light of a record production of 252 lakh of foodgrain. Does this mean that precious grain that could feed millions will rot again this year? Notably, a lot of foodgrain got rotten in 2011 and the story is set to be repeated this year as well. However, Union...
08:26 AM, Apr 24, 2012
New Delhi: The Congress on Monday said it was "open minded" about suggestions on choice of the next president and that it will consult its United Progressive Alliance partners on the issue. Responding to ally Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader Sharad Pawar's reported support for an apolitical candidate, Congress spokesperson Renuka Chowdhury said it was the party's duty to listen to views of its allies. She said the party's core...
04:20 AM, Apr 24, 2012
New Delhi: The allies of the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) seem to be getting together to push for an apolitical presidential candidate with President Pratibha Patil's term ending in July. The name that seems to getting the maximum leverage is that of former president APJ Abdul Kalam. Key UPA ally and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar has said that there must be dialogue across the NDA and the...
09:05 AM, Apr 23, 2012
Mumbai: Union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar on Sunday remembered Maharashtra's first chief minister and veteran Congress leader Yashwantrao Chavan as a visionary economist who had the ability to explain the finer points of economics to the common man in simple language. "Chavan viewed that inflation was a sign of growing economy. He had the ability to explain economics to the common man with utmost ease," Pawar said releasing a Marathi...
12:11 AM, Apr 23, 2012
Mumbai: Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar on Sunday said a "non-political" person could be an "ideal" choice as the country's next President, while denying that his party had endorsed PA Sangma as a possible candidate for the same. "Both UPA and NDA don't have the required numbers to ensure that candidate of their choice gets elected as the next President. Hence, I feel that a non-political person can be an ideal...
05:21 PM, Apr 22, 2012
New Delhi: In his now famous letter to the Prime Minister, Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar had termed the UPA's agriculture policy on exports "ambivalent", "constantly prevaricating" and "against the interests of the farming community". Pawar even took on Commerce and Textiles Minister Anand Sharma and Food Minister KV Thomas, both of the Congress party, while claiming that the Prime Minister was on his side. However, Thomas has now refuted Pawar's...
10:45 AM, Apr 22, 2012
Mumbai: The Lavasa developer has been selected without any transparency, according to the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) report. The report also says that the Lavasa project is driven by private interest rather than public interest. This may come as an embarrassment for NCP chief Sharad Pawar as he has been openly defending the Lavasa project. Lavasa is a hill project near Pune in Maharashtra. The project got a conditional...
02:04 PM, Apr 17, 2012
New Delhi: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has called a meeting of Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee, Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar, Commerce and Textiles Minister Anand Sharma and Food Minister KV Thomas on April 23 to address the concerns reflected in Pawar's letter to him earlier this month. Pawar had termed UPA's agriculture policy on exports 'ambivalent', 'constantly prevaricating' and 'against the interests of the farming community'. Pawar, in his letter, took...
11:32 PM, Apr 16, 2012
Mumbai: In a relief to Supriya Sule, Baramati MP and the daughter of NCP president Sharad Pawar, Bombay High Court on Friday dismissed a petition challenging her election on the ground that she had purchased a property in Singapore, and attained citizenship of that country. The court on Friday held that though Sule had property in Singapore, it did not mean that she owed allegiance to the island nation. Justice...
08:09 PM, Apr 13, 2012
New Delhi: Amid signs of unease over Sharad Pawar's move, Congress on Thursday said it was upto the Prime Minister to take a decision on Agriculture Minister's letter to him alleging that the government's policies were hurting farmers who were being asked to subsidise industry. "We do not know the details of the letter. The Prime Minister will go through it and take an appropriate decision", party spokesman Rashid Alvi...
07:38 PM, Apr 12, 2012
New Delhi: Irked by curbs on milk, cotton and sugar exports, Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar has shot off a letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh stating that the government's policies are hurting farmers who are being asked to subsidise the industry. Pawar wrote to the Prime Minister on Tuesday, a day after group of ministers disallowed cotton export beyond 13 million bales for the current marketing year. He strongly criticised...
06:55 AM, Apr 12, 2012
Satara (Maharashtra): Nationalist Congress Party chief and Union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar has taken a dig at Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan for his poor handling of drought relief works in the state. Pawar said that eating lunch with farmers during a drought crisis review meeting would not help in tackling the problem. "The problems (like drought) won't be resolved by sitting under a tree and eating 'thecha' (a green...
01:14 PM, Apr 05, 2012
Pune: Union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar on Saturday refuted the allegation that the NCP ditched the Congress in the recent elections to the posts of Zilla Parishad chairman and vice-chairman in the state, saying it was Congress which had failed to honour the 'dharma' of coalition. Referring to the allegation by MPCC president Manikrao Thakre that the NCP had "cheated" the Congress by joining hands with other parties (including Shiv...
10:20 PM, Mar 24, 2012
New Delhi: India on Friday allowed cotton exports to neighbouring countries, including Pakistan and Bangladesh, via land route after scrutinising the orders issued before the government imposed a ban on March 5 which has since been partially revoked. On March 5, the government had imposed a ban on cotton exports but the decision was rolled back on political pressure from the Congress Party and its key ally NCP, led by...
04:31 AM, Mar 24, 2012
New Delhi: Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar said on Tuesday that he was upset with the Prime Minister over his remark in Parliament that coalition governance was a major hurdle in the way of reforms. Sharad Pawar said that he was pained at the PM's remarks. "The PM said that the allies were not cooperating. We felt bad because we never acted like this. We respect the coalition religion. If we...
08:18 PM, Mar 20, 2012
New Delhi: Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar was on Tuesday taken ill in the Lok Sabha where he felt a bit dizzy just after conclusion of the Question Hour. There were reports that the NCP chief fainted in the lobby of the Lok Sabha but this was not immediately confirmed. Pawar, 71, was taken away in an official car from Parliament premises accompanied by his daughter and Baramati MP Supriya Sule...
12:52 PM, Mar 13, 2012
