Govt permits exports of up to 25,000 tn of pharma grade sugar per fiscal under restricted category
The permission will be given only to
bona fide pharmaceutical exporters
.
"Export of
pharma grade sugar
, up to a total of 25,000 MTs per financial year, shall be permitted to bona fide pharma exporters against a restricted export authorisation," according to a notification issued by the
Directorate General of Foreign Trade
(
DGFT
).
by Taboola
by Taboola
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Pharma-grade sugar is a high-quality product manufactured by following specific standards.
In a separate trade notice, the DGFT said that it has added 'Source from India' feature on
Trade Connect ePlatform
.
Live Events
The platform acts as a comprehensive hub of information and services on international trade with all related stakeholders including
Indian Missions Abroad
, Export Promotion Councils, EXIM Bank, Dept of Commerce, DGFT.
This feature would be a one-stop reference point for international buyers to discover accomplished Indian Exporters to source from.
"The feature allows exporters to create their own micropages where they can provide their product details as well as the credentials of their entity," it added.
Indian Missions Abroad have also been duly sensitised to use Source from India as a reference point for addressing the sourcing needs of foreign buyers approaching the missions for requests to help find Indian suppliers for various products.
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The Hindu
9 minutes ago
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Why are thousands of small and marginal farmers in Maharashtra rejoicing about India-U.K. FTA?
In Nilwande village, 50 kilometres away from Nashik city, 35 years old Chhaya Thete wakes up early morning to send her two children to a private English medium school around an hour away from her village. Tiffins packed, meals cooked, she then heads to her farm to see if the stems in her vineyard have changed colour. Due to the unseasonal rain this time, she is worried that there will be diseases on the leaves and that the yield might reduce. But there is one thing she looks up to this year – the increased income on her export quality grapes. She is kicked about the India – UK Free Trade Agreement, whereby Indian grapes will now enter UK duty-free. For this woman farmer with a marginal land holding of close to two acres, it promises better income, better standard of living and some disposable income. The district of Nashik is called the grape capital of India. In 2023-24, India exported over 3 Lakh metric tonnes of grapes, valued at over $400 million. Maharashtra is the its biggest producer. UK has consistently been one of our top importers. And most of the grapes grown in the fertile land of Nashik make their way to the European market. With the India-UK Free Trade Agreement, Indian grapes will now become more competitive in the European market and will stand a better chance in front of competitors like South Africa, Chile, which have to exporting to UK without any tarriff. Our grapes were levied a tarriff of eight per cent earlier. But for the small and marginal farmers, a majority in India, the better chance of exploiting this opportunity comes with the power of collective farming. Over the last decade or so, Chhaya, along with her husband Dnyaneshwar Thete, has repaid a bank loan, bought more land for grape cultivation, and has built a small bungalow on the land where a modest house with thatched roof stood once. She cultivates some new and exclusive varieties of grapes like Ara. And Chhaya Thete is not alone. In the neighbouring village, 49 years old Vijay Wadje and his young son are equally excited. They have been cultivating some of the exclusive grape varieties for export for a while now. And the experience of sending it for export has been different from the experience of selling the produce in the domestic market. 'I have been doing grape farming for 25 years now. Earlier, I used to cultivate Sonaka variety. I did it for almost 10 years, and sold the produce in the domestic market. But not only did I get poor rate, the income was also not fixed. We had to pack the grapes ourselves and take them to the trader, who would hardly ever pay on time. But then, over a decade ago, I saw people around me cultivate Thompson variety. I saw them prosper. So I decided to try my hand at it. And since then, there has been no looking back. Today, I cultivate Thompson, Ara varieties. The produce goes to the company. We get timely payment as per the quality of the produce. There is strict testing and quality control. The higher the quality of my grapes, the better the price,' said Vijay Wadje. He owns 2.5 acres of land. Each acre gives him 100 quintals of grape. Each kilogram earns him anywhere between Rs 60 to Rs 100, depending on the quality. His son, 23 years old Rahul Wadje, who has completed Physics, joined his father in agriculture three years ago while doing a part time agriculture diploma. He is one of the few youngsters who want to continue farming. Others are moving away from the family farms, looking for private or government jobs. 'I want to continue farming. But that is not sufficient. I want to simultaneously start an agriculture-allied business, like providing hardware or mulching paper, for agriculture,' he said with excitement in his voice and a twinkle in his eyes. He has been consciously carrying out experiments in the farm to improve the quality, and is acutely aware of the strict quality control measures farmers have to take for making the produce which passes the stringent export norms. 'We test our soil five times a year. We also test our vineyard regularly. The petiole testing is crucial. The European market is very strict. They test the taste, colour, variation. They want each berry to be the same size, to have the same taste and colour. They don't want chemicals in their grapes. We follow all the international norms. Our grapes are the best quality for eating. Even we eat them right from the vineyard. If we buy grapes from the market, we need to wash them thoroughly. But that is not the consideration for the export quality grapes we grow The secret behind their changed fortune is collective farming. They are all a part of the 14,000 farmers associated with a Farmer Producer Company – Sahyadri Farms. 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Economic Times
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Five years before the RBI became fully independent in 1949, Bose launched the Bank of Azad Hind to fund his liberation campaign and to demonstrate that India could run its own financial institutions before it had even won its political freedom. Also Read: Independence Day 2025: Tryst with growth — India's economic journey from Nehru to now The short but strong saga of this bank has been well drafted in S.A. Ayer's book, "Unto Him a Witness". Ayer, who served in Bose's cabinet, wrote, 'At this stage, Netaji established the first National Bank of Azad Hind outside India in Rangoon on the 5th of April, 1944, to finance the war of India's liberation.' The 'stage' Ayer refers to was a tense moment. Bose was preparing to leave for the front in the Imphal–Kohima campaign. Japanese and Burmese authorities were sceptical about establishing a bank in wartime, fearing political complications. Some colleagues worried about capital, stability, and the timing. But Bose was unmoved and unbothered. 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Also Read: India's space race: From bullock carts to Gaganyaan'How one man, Yellappa, and the other four patriotic Indians worked like Trojans night and day for a week and converted a vacant building into a full-fledged bank — with an authorised capital of rupees fifty lakhs is a romantic story that deserves a chapter all by itself,' Ayer Fay, in his book "The Forgotten Army", recounts how Netaji's appeal in Rangoon for rupees 5 million triggered an extraordinary outpouring of support from the Indian community in Burma and Malaya, ultimately swelling the Azad Hind Bank's reserves to about 215 million rupees – more than 150 million rupees from Burma media reports and later historical accounts identify some of the most prominent donors: Abdul Habeeb Yusuf Marfani, a Gujarati businessman in Rangoon, is said to have pledged his entire fortune of roughly 1 crore rupees; the Betai family, Hiraben and Hemraj, reportedly contributed 50 lakh rupees in cash and assets; and Iqbal Singh Narula famously offered silver equal to Netaji's own Bank of Azad Hind soon became the treasury of the Provisional Government. 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Following the Modi government's decision in 2016 to declassify files related to Bose, the finance ministry began receiving unusual petitions. Several borrowers wrote offering to repay their loans using Azad Hind Bank currency notes, some promising the bearer sums as high as ₹1 lakh. 'We have received representations from some individuals who want the currency issued by Azad Hind Bank or similar variants to be recognised as legal tender,' a government official told ET at the Reserve Bank of India, citing Section 22 of the RBI Act, 1934, rejected the requests, saying it had no record of such an entity and that only the RBI has the sole authority to issue banknotes. Some petitioners pushed back, arguing the RBI 'itself was formed by the British' and that the government should take a fresh Ayer's view, the bank was never merely a repository of funds for Bose: Perhaps it was a pledge of a nation to free itself, having 'our own currency and our own bank' alongside an army and a government.
Time of India
22 minutes ago
- Time of India
Davanagere villages get 24X7 drinking water supply under Jal Jeevan Mission
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