New Delhi: The government on Monday said it aims
to triple the size of the food processing sector within the
next decade, which will increase employment opportunities in
the industry.
"The ministry has adopted the Vision 2015, which
aims to triple the size of the food sector in 10 year's time
by increasing the level of processing of perishables from 6
per cent to 20 per cent, value addition from 20 per cent to 35
per cent and share in global trade from 1.5 per cent to 3 per
cent," Food Processing Industries Minister Subodh Kant Sahai
said in reply to a question in the Rajya Sabha today.
"At present, the food processing sector employs about 13
million people directly and about 35 million people
indirectly," he said, adding that implementation of the Vision
2015 would create more jobs.
According to the National Skill Development Corp, Andhra
Pradesh has the largest share of the number of people employed
in the sector, at 14.1 per cent, followed by Uttar
Pradesh at 12 per cent. Closely following the two states are
Kerala and Tamil Nadu at 11.9 per cent and 11.2 per cent
respectively.
The other major states where substantial employment is
generated by the food processing industry are Maharashtra (7.8
per cent of total employment), Punjab (7.7 per cent),
Karnataka (6 per cent), Gujarat (5.9 per cent), West
Bengal (4.8 per cent), Assam (4.7 per cent), Haryana (3.3 per
cent)and Madhya Pradesh (2.3 per cent). Other states
constituted 8.3 per cent of the total employment in the food
processing sector.
Under the Indo-US civil nuclear act, the CRS said,
the US President must sent to the Senate Foreign Relations
Committee and the House Foreign Affairs Committee a report
describing the reasons for the proposed arrangement.
It should include a description (including the text)
of the arrangement, and a certification that the US "will
pursue efforts to ensure that any other nation that permits
India to reprocess or otherwise alter in form or content
nuclear material.
The country has transferred to India or nuclear material
and by-product material used in or produced through the use of
nuclear material, non-nuclear material, or equipment that it
has transferred to India requires India to do so under similar
arrangements and procedures.
The CRS said 30 days of continuous session must
elapse after the President has submitted the report.
"The proposed arrangement shall not take effect if
Congress adopts a joint resolution of disapproval within this
30-day period," the report said.
The act requires that such a resolution "be
considered pursuant to the procedures set forth in section 130
i" of the Atomic Energy Act.
Notably, the advanced consent agreement is just the
third such pact ever undertaken by the US with another
country.
The US had previously granted similar rights only to
the European consortium EURATOM and Japan, but not to China,
Brazil, Indonesia, South Korea, nor to sixteen other countries
with 123 Agreements.
The agreement was reached after months of intense
negotiations between the two countries.
"These arrangements, negotiated pursuant to Article
6(iii) of the historic Agreement for Cooperation between the
Government of India and the Government of the United States of
America concerning Peaceful Uses of Nuclear Energy, will
enable Indian reprocessing of US-obligated nuclear material
under IAEA safeguards," the State Department said in a
statement on March 29.
"Completion of these arrangements will facilitate
participation by US firms in India's rapidly expanding civil
nuclear energy sector," it said.
PTI
First Published: Monday, April 19, 2010, 21:46