The Indian government on Wednesday allowed the export of 45,000 tonnes of non-basmati rice to neighbouring countries - Sri Lanka and Nepal - through public sector trading firms MMTC and PEC.
 
The Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT), which issued the notification, said the rice to be exported shall have at least 25 per cent broken grains. The shipments will have to be completed by September.
 
The state-owned firms should supply the rice at "commercially negotiated price", it said.

PEC has been mandated to export 20,000 tonnes rice to Sri Lanka and MMTC would ship 25,000 tonnes to Nepal, it added.
 
The government, in April 2008, had imposed ban on export of non-basmati rice to ensure availability of the grain in the domestic market and check the price rise.
 
The government earlier also had allowed shipment of limited quantity of the grain to some African countries.

Source Asia Plus