Officials said apart from infrastructure and skill development, agriculture could be the next big focus area.
Non-flagship programmes to get a mere 5% hike in allocation
Warehousing law amendment on cards to allow farmers use storage receipts as security for bank loans
Though the Centre's fiscal consolidation story is taking a hit, Plan expenditure is likely to provide some respite. In the Budget, expected to be tabled by mid-March, the Plan expenditure is likely to be scaled down in the revised estimates for 2011-12, compared to Budget estimates.
To speed up the vacation of additional 2G and 3G telecom spectrum, the government will likely make a Rs 5,000-crore (Rs 50 billion) provision in the Budget for an alternative network for defence services. The spectrum released in lieu of that would increase the availability for civilian use.
Officials do not believe economic growth would go down as low as 6.8 per cent.
But says the airline will have to meet targets to get fund.
In what could mean a big investment opportunity for the construction industry in the years to come, the road transport ministry plans to more than double private participation in highway construction during the 12th Five Year Plan starting April 2012.
Document to talk about social unrest, energy shortages, global factors.
Critics have slammed a bloated subsidy that has been proposed for the food security bill, but officials in the government strongly believe that the resultant additional burden will not be above Rs 27,000 crore to meet the commitments under the proposed legislation.
Cabinet had earlier this week deferred a decision on the much-discussed issue on this ground.
Crucial financial sector reforms are again stuck, despite Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee's appealing to political parties to help pass the legislations in this regard.
Even so, whenever a hitherto closed sector has been opened to FDI or the sectoral investment cap has been raised, the move has drawn strong protest. The latest instance is multi-brand retail.
Pronab Sen, principal advisor in the Planning Commission, says that it is difficult to pinpoint the exact GDP number for the current fiscal, as IIP data is questionable and contradicts with exports growth story.
The second Human Development Report 2011, to be released after a gap of 10 years, paints a dismal picture of the access that rural households have to electricity.
Over 60 per cent of these borrowings are slated to be mopped up in the festival season.
The Planning Commission's de-linking entitlement benefits for the poor from the Suresh Tendulkar committee's recommendation on determination of poverty has left a big question mark on the number of beneficiaries to be covered under the proposed Food Security Act.
Inflation is awfully close to 10 per cent, double digits. The main concern is that it has persisted at that level for a long time. The RBI would have to take that persistence into account, suggesting that it is still a problem and vigilance is still required on inflation.