As the country grapples with a string of corruption issues, the approach paper to the 12th Five-Year Plan, which is in final stages of preparation by the Planning Commission, will focus prominently on governance issues.
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.
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 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.
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.
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 government is expected to end the benefits under Section 10A and 10B of the Income Tax Act.
Small and medium information technology companies operating out of the Software Technology Park of India (STPI) and who have not relocated their business operations to the special economic zones (SEZs) could stand to lose a substantial part of their tax holidays after the forthcoming Budget.
This Budget, the finance ministry may consider a proposal for a seed fund that would provide financial support to states willing to sell items other than foodgrain, sugar and kerosene through the public distribution system (PDS). The move, experts believe, will help reigning in food inflation that remains in double digits, despite moderation.
To fund infrastructure projects in the public-private-partnership model, the forthcoming Budget could lay down some broad contours on the setting up of debt funds, which will provide investment for the core sector.
As a bonanza to southern states, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee is expected to allocate funds worth Rs 6,000 crore (Rs 60 billion) for Chennai and Bangalore Metro rail systems in the forthcoming Budget.
Officials said the proposal and funding could be included in the coming budget and preliminary discussions have been held with finance ministry officials.
The world economy has slipped into a state of stagflation, says Reddy.
In an earlier analysis for the period till April 26, it had been found that of the 365 items in the WPI, the index for as many as 166 items had not been revised for more than four months. The latest analysis as of June 21 shows that the index for around 55 of these 166 items has been revised. In effect, only one-third of the items have seen an index revision. During this period, headline inflation has moved from 8.27 per cent to 11.63 per cent.
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