A high definition format for television viewers to enjoy the Commonwealth Games and efforts for auction of 3G spectrum were some matters that kept the Information and Broadcasting Ministry busy in 2009.
The Samajwadi Party on Friday termed its decision to support the government at the Centre, during last year's trust vote over the India-United States civil nuclear agreement, as a 'historical blunder'. On whether the Congress has betrayed his party, he said, "I don't want to use such strong words against the Congress, but we are disenchanted with it".Singh said he had received a lot of flak within his party for supporting the United Progressive Allaince.
The Third Front, which has a history of mutative existence, hops into the new year with the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhgham joining the group of disparate parties ganging up on a non-Congress, non-Bharatiya Janata Party platform.
The central government is likely to announce a restructuring-cum-revival package for Hindustan Shipyard Ltd (HSL), the largest public sector shipyard, at a cost of around Rs 830 crore (Rs 8.3 billion) in the coming Budget.
Mumbai rail service may get a facelift as the Union Railway Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav announces the Phase II of developmental plans this Budget.
Russian Prime Minister Victor Zubkov, who arrives in New Delhi on February 12, is leading a delegation of over 150 CEOs
The commerce ministry has endorsed India Inc's stand against signing a free trade agreement (FTA) with China until it becomes a market economy that follows transparent pricing of manufactured goods and services.
Central ministries as a whole are expected to get an increase of only 15 per cent in gross budgetary support for 2008-09, much lower than the 62 per cent increase they had demanded.
With anti-competitive practices of global pharma companies increasingly coming under regulatory scrutiny internationally, Indian public interest groups and the domestic medicine makers complain that India's competitive laws are not equipped to face a similar situation of monopoly in the sales of patent protected medicines in the country.
According to senior ministry officials, the loan is expected to be approved within six months. The plan is to construct two rail corridors between Delhi-Mumbai (western corridor) and Delhi-Kolkata (eastern corridor). These would be exclusively for freight trains and run parallel to the national highways connecting the four metros.
In a bid to assuage corporate India's fears over key aspects of the Competition Act, 2007, the Competition Commission of India has decided to ensure that 90 per cent merger and acquisition proposals put up for its approval are cleared within 60 days. The present timeline is 210 days.
The project, which is being implemented on build-operate-transfer basis by the concessionaire Jaiprakash Associates Ltd, is expected to be completed by February 2010, before the commencement of the Commonwealth Games. A special purpose vehicle by the name Jaypee Infratech Ltd has been incorporated recently to implement the project by the concessionaire.
The central government is likely to extend the Software Technology Parks of India (STPI) scheme beyond 2009 only to Indian information technology-enabled services/business process outsourcing (ITeS/BPO) firms. A proposal to this effect has been included in the 11th Five-Year Plan document, which will be put up for the approval of the National Development Council, headed by the prime minister, on December 19.
After passing of the Competition Act, 2007, in September, Minister of Corporate Affairs Prem Chand Gupta had announced that the CCI would be fully functional by the middle of next year.
The Delhi government has already cleared the first of these, the 16.3-km Ambedkar Nagar-Delhi Gate corridor, under its proposed high-capacity busy system project.
Prices of cotton have already gone up by 10-20 per cent per candy (356 kg) this year to Rs 16,000-Rs 23,000 depending on the variety. There has been a softening in the past few weeks but the prices are expected to firm up again as demand grows.
The industry is seriously concerned that the new Competition Act, passed by Parliament in September but not yet fully notified, could impact local and cross-border mergers and acquisitions (M&As) and curtail business activities by placing substantial discretionary powers in the hands of the thinly-staffed Competition Commission of India (CCI).
This will be a measure to provide start-up entrepreneurs and professionals the much-needed flexibility in setting up a business in India.
State governments are gradually taking initiative as far as developing highways is concerned.
With the export market losing its sheen, a growing number of apparel exporters are drawing up strategies to sell their wares in the domestic market. Analysts said that the higher local demand for branded apparel was because of rising purchasing power of consumers who were now spending 6-7 per cent of their disposable income on ready-made garments. The surge in consumer spending has resulted in a 20 per cent growth in demand for international apparel.
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