Mumbai: Agriculture minister Sharad Pawar may attend the swearing-in ceremony of Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal on March 14, party sources said. "Pawar saheb has plans to attend the function on condition that there is no major development in Parliament (on that day)," NCP sources said. Pawar is now in Mumbai and attended a function with President Pratibha Patil to mark the launch of the year-long birth centenary celebrations...
09:25 PM, Mar 12, 2012
New Delhi: The ban on cotton exports is being lifted; a formal announcement will be made on Monday. This comes after stiff opposition from not just farmers but also Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi. In fact, several UPA leaders - including Agriculture minister Sharad Pawar were against the ban. They had all accused the Commerce Minister of going ahead with the ban without proper consultations. Modi on Sunday said the...
06:51 AM, Mar 12, 2012
New Delhi: The ban on cotton export is likely to be lifted on Friday but the question right now is that, was the decision not a conflict of interest for Commerce Minister Anand Sharma who heads both the Commerce and Textiles ministries? Sharad Pawar, Pranab Mukherjee and Anand Sharma met for almost two hours on the directions of the Prime Minister to review the Commerce Ministry's decision to ban cotton...
06:31 AM, Mar 10, 2012
New Delhi: The ban on cotton exports is likely to be lifted on Saturday, according to sources. The Group of Ministers (GoM) meet to review the ban on cotton exports remained inconclusive on Friday. As a result of this the ban stays till any decision is taken in more meetings to be held. The meeting came after Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar said he was kept in the dark about the...
08:58 PM, Mar 09, 2012
New Delhi: The Group of Ministers (GoM) meet to review the ban on cotton exports remained inconclusive on Friday. As a result of this the ban stays till any decision is taken in more meetings to be held in the coming days. The meeting came after Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar said he was kept in the dark about the ban. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had asked the Commerce Ministry's decision...
07:24 PM, Mar 09, 2012
New Delhi: A Group of Ministers (GoM) met on Friday to review the controversial decision of banning cotton exports. The meeting came after Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar said he was kept in the dark about the ban. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had asked the Commerce Ministry's decision to ban cotton exports to be reviewed. Commerce Minister Anand Sharma defended the decision saying textile mills were carrying their lowest ever stocks...
05:46 PM, Mar 09, 2012
New Delhi: A group of ministers will be meeting on Friday at 5:00 pm to discuss the row over the ban on cotton exports. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had asked the Commerce Ministry's decision to ban cotton exports to be reviewed. Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi and Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar had taken strong objection to the decision. The Commerce Ministry had taken the decision to ban cotton exports earlier...
10:31 AM, Mar 09, 2012
New Delhi: Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar, who has been strongly questioning viability of the Food Security Bill, on Monday said the country will have enough wheat and rice stocks to implement the UPA's flagship programme. "This year, we will break last year's record by reaching 250 million tonnes of foodgrains," Pawar said on the sidelines of Kharif Conference 2012. "With this background, to implement the Food Security Bill, I don't...
04:30 AM, Mar 06, 2012
New Delhi: After his party emerged as largest in local body polls in Maharashtra, NCP chief Sharad Pawar on Monday said he would be happy if Congress does well in Uttar Pradesh. "We will be happy if Congress does well in Uttar Pradesh," Pawar said. His remarks came when asked whether Congress would be worried due to better performance by his party in Maharashtra local body polls. The Congress shares...
12:22 AM, Feb 21, 2012
New Delhi: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was on Monday conferred honorary doctorate by the country's premier agriculture research body Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI) in recognition of his contributions to the development of the farm sector. Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar presented the 'Degree of Doctor of Science (Honoris Causa)' to the Prime Minister at 50th convocation of IARI in New Delhi. Being the country's premier national institute for agricultural research,...
05:36 PM, Feb 20, 2012
New Delhi, Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar said on Wednesday it will be difficult to implement the proposed Food Security Act with existing distribution system and suggested massive reforms. "I will be failing in my duty if I do not emphasise the fact that the Food Security Act will never succeed in achieving its goal in letter and spirit, if we try to push the same through the existing PDS apparatus,"...
01:20 PM, Feb 08, 2012
Mumbai: Union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar on Friday came out in strong defence of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh over the 2G episode, but admitted that the multi-crore spectrum scam has brought "disrepute" to the system and the Government. The NCP President maintained that the Supreme Court's verdict on Thursday cancelling 2G licences granted in 2008 was not an indictment of the Congress-led UPA Government, in which his party is a...
05:21 AM, Feb 04, 2012
New Delhi: A day after the stunning 2G blow in the Supreme Court, there was more trouble for the UPA government on Friday as an India-born Canadian claimed that he paid Union Minister Praful Patel a 250-thousand dollar bribe in 2007. According to the Canadian, he paid the bribe to help Canadian firm Crypto Metric bag a 100-million dollar deal with Air India for a facial-recognition security system. However, the...
05:48 PM, Feb 03, 2012
New Delhi: Agriculture minister Sharad Pawar has hit out at the UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi's Food security Bill. In an exclusive interview to CNN-IBN, Pawar said there are not enough funds to implement Food Security Bill in its present form. This is the first time he is speaking out against the bill after it was cleared by the Cabinet. "The total provision for entire agriculture ministry is 20,000 crore. And...
01:11 PM, Jan 29, 2012
In an exclusive interview to CNN-IBN on Saturday, NCP chief and Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar said that if the Congress does not do well in Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections, then Rahul Gandhi will be blamed. When asked if he thought Rahul Gandhi would be projected as the next prime ministerial candidate after the Uttar Pradesh Assembly polls, Pawar said, "I don't know whether the Congress will project him immediately even...
06:01 PM, Jan 28, 2012
New Delhi: NCP Chief and Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar is all set to hang his political boots. In an exclusive interview to CNN-IBN, the former Maharashtra chief minister said that he will not contest the 2014 Lok Sabha Elections. Pawar further said that in 45 years of his political career he has not lost a single election, but it's time to make way for the younger lot to take over....
03:15 PM, Jan 28, 2012
Ralegan Siddhi: In remarks that could stoke a fresh controversy, anti-graft activist Anna Hazare on Tuesday evening said a person is left with no option other than going for a slap when his power of tolerance of corruption runs out. "When a man's power of tolerance runs out, then whoever is in front of you, if a slap is given, then the brain is put back in place. That is...
07:16 AM, Jan 25, 2012
New Delhi: After Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee's angry outbursts, more headaches from allies seem to be in store for the Congress with Nationalist Congress Party chief Sharad Pawar's ultimatum to finalise by Tuesday seat-sharing for the upcoming Mumbai civic polls. Following Pawar's ultimatum, given Sunday, Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan is in Delhi to discuss the issue with senior Congress party leaders. He met senior party leader and Defence...
09:01 PM, Jan 09, 2012
New Delhi: Amidst reports that the NCP had served an ultimatum to the Congress over an alliance row for the upcoming Bombay Municipal Corporation polls, NCP leader Jitendra Awhad has clarified that it was merely a suggestion and not an ultimatum. "Negotiations are on... He (Sharad Pawar)only said that negotiations should be finished at the right time because if the whole matter is delayed then it is a matter of...
08:37 AM, Jan 09, 2012
New Delhi: The Government has appealed to Anna Hazare to call off his proposed fast in Mumbai and says that it has fulfilled its promise on the Lokpal Bill. Minister of State, Parliamentary Affairs, V Narayanswamy said that the Lokpal Bill is before Parliament which will discuss and pass it. "As far as the government is concerned, there is no need for Anna to go on fast because the governments...
06:58 PM, Dec 23, 2011
