The wheat procurement season has ended in most big foodgrain-growing states with an all-time high purchase of almost 28 million tonnes (mt), creating a problem of storing such huge stocks.
Officials said the Centre would have to bear an additional subsidy burden of Rs 4,161 crore this financial year, if this proposal was implemented.
The heightened activity on permissions to power and mining projects, which had been stuck for long, coincides with the run-up to a likely reshuffle of the council of ministers this month.
The railways buy an average of 2.4 billion litres of diesel every year spending around Rs 4,500 crore (Rs 45 billion) annually on diesel fuel expenses for operating locomotives.
Officials from the food ministry said if the situation continued, the country could face a problem of plenty, as grain stocks this year are at a high level of 65 million tonnes (mt), while the total storage space available with the Food Corporation of India and state agencies, both covered and uncovered, is estimated at 63 mt as on June 1.
A big change in the new IIP data, taking 2004-05 as the base year against 1993-94 in the old series, is its classification of items and the weights assigned to these.
New census will include questions about religion and castes.
The sector attracted foreign investments to the tune of $1,252 million during the year, a 12.8 per cent decline compared to $1,437 million registered in the previous year, according to latest data released by the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (see table).
Schneider Electric, the $20-billion French engineering major, has identified India's perennial power shortage as a major business opportunity.
The data, to be compiled by the ministry of statistics and programme implementation, will bring out the proportion of population actively contributing to production of goods and services, also known as the labour force participation ratio, every quarter.
Work on the much-delayed dedicated railway freight corridor is expected to begin with contracts worth Rs 10,000 crore (Rs 100 billion) to be awarded before the end of the current financial year.
With Trinamool Congress (TMC) chief Mamata Banerjee's landslide victory in West Bengal, the Union railways ministry is set to have a new minister soon and a revamped board.
Economy grew by 8.6 per cent in 2010-11.
The reservations of Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh on the projected additional electricity generation capacity of 100,000 Mw during the 12th Five-Year Plan (2012-17) period has failed to cut much ice with the Planning Commission.
The PPP framework for these projects, like building hospitals and schools, will be different from the existing regime for infrastructure.
Besides, as urbanisation spreads, the country will consume more wheat, pulses and less rice and coarse cereals in the coming years.
It is now looking at a solution from the Unique Identification Authority of India for ensuring accurate identification of the beneficiaries of its low-cost services.
Fund balances for the current financial year have already been revised downwards by the ministry from the budgeted Rs 5,062 crore to Rs 3,100 crore.
The working group on food and public distribution constituted under the chairmanship of Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia is likely to recommend using the numbers effectively for streamlining PDS.
The huge reduction in the government's support for Bhavini has brought down the overall budgetary allocation for nuclear power schemes by 20 per cent.
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