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Briefing
Centre to set up biotech parks
The Centre will set up `biotechnology parks' to trigger a revolution in biotech industries, Union Minister for Human Resource Development and Science and Technology Murli Manohar Joshi said. Inaugurating a three-day national conference on "Emerging Trends in Bio-pharmaceuticals, Proteins and the role of Chromatography", Mr Joshi said the government would take several steps to popularise use of technology in agriculture and food processing sectors. Stressing on the need for greater role of the private sector in the field, he said while the demand for biotech products in human and animal health care in the country was expected to touch Rs 57,480 million by 2005, there were only 25 companies in the modern biotech sector.Oil prices may fall with global trends
Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha said the Government may consider reducing the domestic oil prices if the global oil prices fall in the near future, leading to wiping off the oil pool account (OPA) deficit. Mr Sinha said rising petroleum prices have led to an OPA deficit of Rs 24,000 crore this year. The recent domestic petroleum prices hike would reduce the deficit by about Rs 7,000 to Rs 8,000 crore, while the duty cut on petroleum imports would reduce it further by Rs 4,000 crore,he said. The remaining Rs12,000 crore would continue as OPA deficit, he added. Agriculture enjoys favourable TOT
Agriculture Minister Nitish Kumar said Indian agriculture has been enjoying `favourable terms of trade' (TOT) since the past decade. The minister informed the Lok Sabha that ``the terms of trade have been favourable to agriculture as indicated by the index of terms of trade since 1990-91.'' Copyright © 2000 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
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