The agricultural growth package mooted in the Union Budget for 2010-11 seems well conceived but not adequately supported by funding for its key elements. This, surprisingly, is despite the 21.6 per cent increase in the overall Central plan outlay for agriculture and allied sectors, the highest hike in recent years.
Mr Mukherjee has presented a good budget, perhaps even a very good one under the circumstances, but he has shied away from presenting a great budget.
Privatising the railways is not on her agenda. But the minister wants to earn revenue for the government by all means possible, and also do social good. railway Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee talks of her pet public-private partnership and Vision 2020. Edited excerpts:
It took India's IT-BPO sector just over a decade to grow more than 12 times, from $4 billion in 1998 to a shade under $50 billion in 2009. Admittedly, the target set by the software service providers' body Nasscom was off by a year.
Billions of rupees spent on river cleaning programmes have gone down the drain. This situation cannot be allowed to continue, says Business Standard.
The room for political manoeuvre to raise petroleum prices is the highest at this point in time, says Business Standard.
Invesors are caught between bullish China and bearish India.
Whether it is the blunder over the glaciers or the linking of natural disasters to global warming, the IPCC's credibility has been badly hit. If this encourages laxity over global warming, that will be tragic.
People who cannot afford long-term higher rate home loans are lured by these teaser rates, only to rue their fate later, says Business Standard.
India needs to do a lot more before global companies view it as a better option than China for business, says Business Standard.
There is no doubt that economic growth has picked up. It's also true that inflation has edged up. We had said at the beginning that sometime in the course of the year we would begin to slowly wind it down and what has happened is on course for that decision but exactly what, it's too early to say, says Montek Singh Ahluwalia.
Government needs to take a call on the DoT-MoD faceoff....
Major subsidies must be knifed before unwinding excise cuts
Google's multi-device plan also helps Android attract many third-party apps. But over 3 billion apps have been downloaded for the iPhone and iPod touch from the App store. So even if Android phones outsell the iPhone, Google will have to do a lot of running to catch up with Apple, which is not sitting idle either.
A rate hike will set back the recovery process, but if RBI does raise rates, it will be to prevent the rise in food prices from spilling over to other sectors and to dampen inflationary expectations.
'The challenge is particularly daunting in the case of services, where it is often hard to define the exact amount of the service rendered.'
India needs long-term thinking for long-term projects and a better handling of PPPs, says Business Standard.
That the Anil Ambani-owned Reliance Energy Limited (REL) will be affected by the Allahabad High Court's decision on the land acquired by it for its 7,500 Mw Dadri power plant is obvious since the entire process of inviting objections to the acquisition has to be initiated from scratch.
It is important that urban planners for roads in cities make their outlook a little more inclusive and provide for reasonable space for pedestrians and cyclists on roads by protecting their right to use sidewalks.
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