Delhi suburb plans world's tallest building

Plans to build a record-breaking skyscraper in a Delhi suburb were given the go-ahead yesterday. Local officials said the building in Noida would be 710 metres (2,330ft) tall - 202 metres higher than Taiwan's Taipei 101, the current tallest building on the planet.

The skyscraper, said to have been designed to resemble the peaks of the Himalayas, is scheduled to be open for business by 2013.

It will contain a 50-floor five-star hotel, a 40-storey glass atrium and 370,000 sq metres (4m sq ft) of shopping centres.

"New York in the 30s, Malaysia in the 90s and China today all have used tall buildings to showcase their countries to the world," said Hafeez Contractor, the architect behind the building. "We want this building to show to the world what India can do."

Mr Contractor has made a name for himself as something of a skyscraper evangeliser and is building a 120-storey tower block in Dubai.

The architect says his new structure will exceed the tallest planned building, the Burj tower in Dubai, although latest reports are that the Middle Eastern state will simply continue adding floors to ensure its supremacy.

The craze for height has hit hardest in industrialising Asian countries such as Taiwan, Malaysia, Hong Kong and China, where seven of the world's 10 tallest buildings are located.

India has severe restrictions on building heights to limit the spread of tall buildings. "We shall need to change the local bylaws to get this project through the planning procedures, but that has already been agreed," said Deo Datta, the chairman of Noida development authority.

Mr Datta added that the 140-hectare (350-acre) site had been acquired for the skyscraper, although yesterday it was being used by a herd of cows for lunch.

There are still hurdles before the project, which aims to attract tourists, shoppers and offices to Noida, can go ahead.

But with land prices rising vertiginously in overcrowded Delhi, officials say foreign investors are lining up to take part.

Noida, which 10 years ago was little more than pastureland outside the capital, has grown thanks to the booming call centre industry, and officials say it wants to transform itself into a tourist hub.

An eight-lane highway links Noida to Delhi and there are plans to extend the new metro system to the suburbs.

Another project will see the the creation of the Noida Eye, modelled on the London Eye.

But some experts are critical of the new wave of Indian design, which they say simply mimics what others have done before and does not take account of local conditions.

"It's not suited for Indian conditions. We do not have enough water. We do not have the uninterrupted electricity supply," said Balkrishna Doshi, one of India's most respected urban designers.

"The building will need its own power plant to make sure the lifts do not stop when the electricity does."

World's tallest building to come up near Delhi?

March 29, 2005 17:37 IST Last Updated: March 29, 2005 19:03 IST

The world's tallest 135-storey building may soon come up in Noida satellite township on the outskirts of Delhi if all goes according to plan.

The skyscraper, to be built as part of the ambitious Noida City Centre in Uttar Pradesh, will be higher than the 508 metre-high Taipei 101 in the Taiwanese capital, currently the tallest building in the world.

Quiz: Which is India's tallest building? The design concept for the building, presented by Mumbai-based architect Hafeez Contractor, has been accepted by the Noida Authority, its chairman and chief executive officer Deo Dutt Sharma said on Tuesday.

"The proposal is still at a very preliminary stage and aspects like the cost and related activities have also to be worked out," he said.

The authority has set up a six-member committee to study the viability of the project and also visit Kuala Lumpur where the world's second tallest building, Petronas Twin Towers, is located, Noida Authority officials said.

The proposal would then be forwarded to the Uttar Pradesh state government for approval, they said.

Hafeez Contractor has proposed a number of other architectural marvels for the City Centre bordering Delhi, including buildings that resemble the Himalayas.

http://inhome.rediff.com/money/2005/mar/29tall.htm

India is:

One of the world's largest food producers (600 million tones).

World's largest producer of milk, sugarcane and tea.

Second largest exporter of rice, wheat, fruits, and vegetables. India produces 30 million tones of fruits and 59 million tons of vegetables.

Food grain production expected to reach 220 million tons in 2003-4. The buffer stock of food grains had reached a record volume of 59 million tones in December, 2001 and stood at 25 million tons in December 2003.

http://www.indiainbusiness.nic.in/india-profile/agristat.htm

The "mere citizens" eats dirt huh?

Some more here:
Indian Scenario

India has the largest area in the world under wheat. However, in terms of production, we are only the third largest behind EU-25 and China.

India produces about 65-75 million tons of wheat a year, which is about 35% of India's total food grain production of 210-212 million tons.

Since wheat and rice are grown in separate seasons, they do not compete for area.

The major wheat producing states of India are Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Haryana, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Bihar. Which together account for around 93% of total production.

Wheat is sown during November to January and harvested during March to April. The wheat-marketing season in India is assumed to begin from April every year.

Indian wheat is largely soft/medium hard, medium protein, bread wheat. India also produces around 1.5 million tons of durum wheat, mostly in central and western India, which is not segregated and marketed separately.

Government announces Minimum Support Prices (MSP), which is the minimum price at which procurement has to be carried.

The total procurement of wheat by Government agencies ranges from 8 to 20 million tons, accounting for only 15-20% of the total production.

The support price operation and the Public Distribution Systems (PDS) play a significant role in maintaining reasonable and stable food grain prices in the country for both the producers and consumers.

India consumes around 70-72 million tons of wheat a year. Most domestic wheat consumption is in the form of homemade chapatis or rotis using custom milled atta, although usage of branded packaged atta marketed by large companies, is increasing in cities.

There are around 200 large flourmills in India, with a milling capacity of around 15 million tons.

India exported around 5 million tons subsidized by Govt in 2003-04, as a result of surplus stock. However, current Govt. policies are not in favour of exports. Southeast Asia and Gulf countries are major importers of Indian wheat.

http://finance.indiamart.com/markets/commodity/wheat.html

Wheat production in India has increased by over ten times in the past five decades and India has become the second largest wheat producer in the world. Today, wheat plays an increasingly important role in the management of India’s food economy. Since 1998-99 India’s share in world wheat production hovers around 11% to13%.

http://www.peclimited.com/agricultural_wheat.htm

India’s agricultural growth during 50 years period of Independence remain impressive at 2.7 percent per annum. Around two – third of this production growth is aided by crop productivity gains. The need based strategies followed since independence and intensified since Mid – sixties mainly focussed on feeding the growing population and making the country self sufficient in food production.

Indian agriculture has achieved very impressive growth in food grains production which has increased almost four times during the planned area of development from 51 million tons in 1950-51 to 199.1 million tonnes in 1997-98. The progress has been really spectacular since sixties after the production and wide spread use of high yielding varieties of seed, fertilisation, pesticides, particularly in assured irrigated areas.

As a result agricultural sector has made rapid strides in making India not only self sufficient in meeting food needs but also marginally surplus in food (Paroda 1998)

Total annual food grain production is closing to 200 million tonnes as we approach the beginning of a new millennium.(Selvarajan’ 1998)

The structural reforms initiated recently have facilitated higher exports of a number of commodities. The growth rate of Agri-exports has accelerated from 11.9 percent to annum in 1980s to 18.6 per annum during first half 1990s.

Since 24 years time series secondary data (1970-71 to 1993-94) indicated the balance of trade of India, which shows negative balance in aggregate, but it was positive in agricultural commodities.

Since 1991, various policy reforms including delicensing, deregulations and removal of various controls to create globally competitive environment by providing stimulus to exports under Trade liberalisation, steps have been taken to lower import duties. On capital goods particularly for food processing industries and subsidy on air freight for export of perishables.

India’s share in World production of several commodities is quite significant while its share in their trade is pitiably low specially for fruits and vegetables, fish, meal and cereals.

In the International trade and Agricultural exports, in recent years technological and marketing collaboration with countries like US. Holland, France and Israel have expanded production and export of floriculture, mushroom groups etc.

In order to be competitive in the International market it would be also necessary to increase the productivity of crops improve quality.

The World Trade Agreement (WTA) provides an excellent opportunity to our country to play an important role.

In the early sixties the share of agricultural commodities was 45 percent in the total exports but this share has been declined to 16 percent by 1994-95.

Even in traditional export commodities like rice, sugar, coffee, cotton, tobacco, jute, banana etc. It is about 1 percent only. Indian agricultural exports have ranged 1.28 percent an 1.82 percent of our products as per the international standards of health and hygiene and improve packaging by introduction of cost effective and Eco-friendly packaging material.

India should also evolve a long term export policy for its agricultural products which should be stable atleast for a reasonable period of 5 years to induce confidence among our exporters.

http://www.manage.gov.in/managelib/faculty/wilson.htm

India's annual rice production is around 85-90 million tons. However, it fell to 73 million tons in 2002-03, due to poor monsoon performance. Annual consumption, is around 85 million tons.

India also annually produces around 6-10 Lakh tons of Basmati rice, more than 70% of which is exported.

In India Rice is cultivated in both seasons - Kharif (80-85%) and Rabi. Only in Southern India due to its tropical environment condition, it can be cultivated in Rabi season also.

West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Punjab, Tamil Nadu, Bihar, Orissa, Assam, Karnataka and Haryana are the major producing states. More than 50% of total production comes from the first four states.

Food Corporation of India purchases around 20 to 25% of the total rice production in the country both under levy from the rice mills and directly in the form of paddy from the farmers at Minimum Support Prices announced by the Govt.

More than 4,000 varieties of rice are grown in India. However, government classifies rice into two categories: common (length to breadth ratio less than 2.5) and Grade A (length to breadth ratio more than 2.5).

Rice purchased by FCI is transported from surplus areas to deficit areas for distribution under PDS. In addition, movement is taken to deficit areas also for price stabilization through open sale.

India's basmati rice and non-basmati rice exports are valued at US $800 million per annum

India is the world's largest exporter of Basmati rice, selling about 6-7 lakh tons of the premium rice mostly to Saudi Arabia and other Middle East Countries, Europe, and the United States every year. It has the potential to export one million tons of this rice.

Major destinations for Indian non-basmati, white/parboiled rice are Bangladesh, Indonesia, Philippines, Nigeria, South Africa, Ivory Coast, and other African countries.

Three years ago, Government of India subsidized exports of rice following a large build up in government held stocks three years ago, which reached a record 26.5 million tons on Nov. 1, 2002.

In January 2004, the Government announced that exporters would be allowed to procure food grains directly from the growers. However, the current policy of the Govt. is to discourage exports.

http://www.mcxindia.com/rice.aspx

No prize for guessing which is the country that is Asia's bread basket.

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