GENERAL
Cold
storage capacity up by 11 per cent
New Delhi: The cold storage capacity in the
country has grown by nearly 11 per cent to 216.94
lakh tons in last two calendar years, up from 195.52
lakh tons at the end of 2004, minister of state for
food processing industries Subodh Kant Sahai told
Rajya Sabha in a written reply.
According
to data from the agriculture ministry, the number
of cold storages increased by 353 to 5,101 during
2005 and 2006. Though the number of cold stores increased
in many states, those like Orissa, Chhattisgarh and
Assam witnessed a decline.
In
Orissa, there were 104 cold storages in 2004, which
came down to 90 in 2006, while 13 units closed down
in Chhattisgarh during the period.
In
the north east, Sikkim, Manipur and Mizoram did not
have any cold storage facility till the end of 2006
calendar year.
The
maximum cold stores are located in Uttar Pradesh and
Uttaranchal put together.
Both
UP and Uttaranchal together have 1,567 cold storages
with a capacity of 89.31 lakh tons, while Maharashtra
has 437 stores of 5.1 lakh tons capacity and West
Bengal 434 with 53.4 lakh capacity.
In
reply to a separate query, Sahai said the food processing
industries ministry proposes to set up a national
meat and poultry processing board to promote exports
and domestic sale of better quality meat and poultry
products.
The
minister said a sub-committee for food processing
within the framework of joint working group on agriculture
is envisaged for closer interaction for bilateral
cooperation between India and France.
(Also See: Agriculture
needs private sector linkages: Indo-American Chamber
of Commerce)
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Israeli
radar systems for new Hindustan Aeronautics jet
Jerusalem, Aug 20: Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI)
has offered to provide a radar system for a new fighter
plane being developed by the public sector Hindustan
Aeronautics Ltd.
A
report in the Israeli newspaper, daily Yediot Ahronoth
said, the two countries agreed to this during the
visit of IAI head Itzhak Nissan.
IAI
has also expressed its keenness to get a contract,
said to be worth over $1 billion, to upgrade 51 Mirage-2000
jets for to the Indian Air Force.
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