India needs 320 mt of grains by 2025: Pawar

• NEW DELHI: India needs to raise its food grain production by almost 40% by 2025 from the present level to feed its huge population, which is likely to grow to 1.3 billion by then, food minister Sharad Pawar said. "The demand for food is growing rapidly due to increasing population and rising income levels and we need to produce about 320 million tonnes of food grains by 2025," he said at a conference. India produced a record 230.67 million tonnes of grains in '07-08.
Wheat output seen stagnant

• NEW DELHI: India hopes to produce record quantity of oilseeds this year on higher acreage, breaching last year's level of 28.82 million tonnes, while wheat output may just about touch previous year's level of 78.4 million tonnes. "Areas under different oilseeds have increased by 15 lakh hectares in both kharif and rabi seasons," agriculture commissioner NB Singh said here on Wednesday. The prospects of wheat crops, however, are not as rosy in the world's second-largest producing country.
IOC to buy crude from Cairn

• BARMER: IndianOil Corporation on Wednesday said it can buy up to 1.5 million tonnes of crude oil a year from Cairn India from its Rajasthan fields. "Subject to commercial terms, we can take up to 1.5 million tonnes of Rajasthan crude," IOC director for refineries BN Bankapur said. IOC's Koyali refinery in Gujarat can take 0.5-0.6 million tonnes of crude oil while its Panipat refinery in Haryana can take 0.9-1 million tonnes, he said.
India, France to boost ties

• NEW DELHI: In a bid to strengthen economic relationship, India and France have agreed for enhanced bilateral cooperation in areas like IT, telecommunications, energy, roads, urban development, railways and agriculture. "Indo-French trade was $8.85 billion during 2007-08... there is a need to work together to create balance in bilateral trade," commerce and industry minister Kamal Nath said on Tuesday evening after meeting French minister of state for foreign trade Anne Marie Idrac.
NPCIL, Areva sign nuke pact

• NEW DELHI: India has signed the first commercial pact to build nuclear power plants with French power equipment and technology company Areva on Wednesday. An MoU was signed by Nuclear Power Corporation of India and Areva.
Essar bags order from ONGC

• MUMBAI: Essar Offshore Subsea, a division of Essar Projects, on Wednesday said it has bagged a Rs 1,000-crore order from ONGC. Essar would modify, revamp platforms of ONGC and install new equipment and facilities in the process complexes of Neelam and Heera at the western offshore fields of India. The project is to be completed by May 2011.