The Economic Survey today pegged the fiscal deficit for 2010-11 at 4.8 per cent, lower than the Budgetary estimates of 5.5 per cent, on the back of higher realisation from 3G spectrum auction and buoyancy in revenues.
The civil aviation industry, which was hit hard by the global financial meltdown and high fuel cost, saw a strong recovery in 2010 with the domestic passenger traffic rising 19 per cent to 51.53 million, the Economic Survey said on Friday.
The Economic Survey tabled today in the Lok Sabha by the Finance Minister Shri Pranab Mukherjee, says that the whole sale price index (WPI) of food inflation rose to 13.6 per cent in December 2010 on account of unfavourable agricultural supply conditions coupled with the waning of base effects.
The Survey presented by the Union Finance Minister, Shri Pranab Mukherjee in the Parliament on Friday states that the Indian economy remains the second fastest growing in the services growth with 8.9 per cent rate, behind China (10.5 per cent).
All components showed improvement with the exception of FDI and banking capital in the first half of 2010-11.
The PFRDA is engaged in consolidating the initiatives taken so far regarding the full New Pension System and expanding the reach of distribution network.
The RBI has been revising down its policy rates since the outbreak of the global financial crisis in September 2008.
On a year-on-year basis, Wholesale Prices-based inflation in December 2009 was 7.3 per cent, while food inflation was 19.77 per cent
The Economic Survey 2009-10 on Thursday made out a strong case for liberalising foreign direct investment policies for health insurance, rural banking and higher education, stating FDI can boost trade in services.
India's per capita carbon dioxide emissions will increase by nearly three-fold to 3.5 tonnes by 2030, the Economic Survey 2009-10 said on Thursday.
It is time he stood up and assured the middle class that they can count on him as one of their own, says Dr Sudhir Bisht.
The villagers, prompted by anti-Posco brigade, opposed the household survey in the village stating that the scope of the survey should only include the government land and not the private land.
The finance ministry seems to be gung ho about economic growth next financial year. It may peg this at nine per cent for 2011-12 in the Economic Survey, likely to be tabled in Parliament on February 25, even as the Reserve bank of India (RBI) hinted at a lower figure.
Instead of mechanically consolidating all labour laws into one, provisions of all labour laws should be relooked in terms of their substance. The irrelevant and archaic provisions have to be fixed, says Aparajita Gupta.
The project of Reliance Energy with capacity of 4000 MW at Shahapur in coastal Raigad district is in progress and is expected to be completed by 2011, Maharashtra Legislature was informed.
The ministry is awaiting some more data in the next few days to arrive at a precise number.
The move is likely to encourage service providers to take their broadband services to rural India. To further increase connectivity, it recommended allowing open access to local loop for broadband provision and designate rural fibre-optic network as a 'public carrier' for provision of telecom connectivity in the rural areas.
At the same time, the survey also suggested broadening the long-term debt markets by liberalising the investment norms for insurance and pension funds and said that the government could consider a guarantee mechanism for credit enhancement of long-term infrastructure debt.
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The right sequence would be to gradually reduce SLR
The central government spent a budget estimate of 19.46 per cent of its total expenditure (both plan and non-plan) in 2009-10 on social services, including rural development, against 10.46 per cent in 2003-04, the Survey tabled in Parliament said on Thursday.
The government has so far awarded four UMPPs to successful developers. One such project is being developed by Tata Power at Mundra in Gujarat while three others -- Sasan in Madhya Pradesh, Krishnapatnam in Andhra Pradesh and Tilaiya in Jharkhand have been bagged by Reliance Power.
Public sector companies did not allow themselves to be bogged down by the global slowdown and kept increasing their investments in 2008-09, the Economic Survey said on Thursday.
Amid the debate on withdrawal of the stimulus, including speculation of a possible across-the-board roll back of cuts in excise duty and service tax, the document suggested further reduction in excise for export oriented industries.
The Economic Survey 2009-10 tabled in Parliament on Thursday said that ". . . This (launch of 3G technology) will provide existing operators a good opportunity as also foreign players to make an entry into the Indian market and bring in new technology and innovation."
Concerned over the sluggish performance of agriculture sector, the Economic Survey hit at food management policies that have led to very high inflation and asked the government to take serious policy initiatives for a targeted four per cent farm sector growth.
During the last five years, of the 12.39 lakh (1.239 million) people who have migrated from other states to Maharashtra, 4.23 lakh (423,000) are from Uttar Pradesh, as per the Economic Survey of Maharashtra for 2008-09 which was tabled in the state Legislature on Wednesday.
The finance ministry has advocated an increase in auto and cooking fuel prices only after the Budget is tabled in Parliament on February 26 in an effort to avert possible united protests from the United Progressive Alliance's non-Congress allies and opposition parties ahead of a busy opening week of Parliament.
An Economic survey released by the state government said the poverty estimates provided by the Planning Commission reveal poverty ratio in the state is 30.7 per cent, 3.2 per cent more than the all-India (27.5 per cent) figure.
The Economic Survey prescribed on Thursday a new bankruptcy law for ensuring speedy disposal of insolvency petitions. Tabled in parliament, the survey called for a new bankruptcy law to 'ensure speedy and effective bankruptcy so as to save/preserve assets for alternative use.'
Seeking regulatory reforms in higher education, the Economic Survey has suggested that quality foreign players should be allowed in the sector.
These ID cards would form the base of a multi-application smart cards system that can be used to empower the poor and ensure that they get full benefit of all programmes such as NREGA, PDS, biblically provided education, skill development, heath services, social security and fertiliser subsidy etc, it added.
Even though the national highways comprise only 2 per cent of the total length of roads, they account for about 40 per cent of the total traffic and the National Highways Development Project, implemented by National Highways Authority of India, remains mired in problems.
Three years after the government brought in a SEZ law promising greater economic activity on the back of tax sops, the Economic Survey on Thursday expressed concern over 'proliferation' of Special Economic Zones seeking a check on them.
India needs to fully open its retail market to foreign investors in order to drive economic growth, although the subject was strictly taboo till last year because of pressure from the government's allies and livelihood concerns.
Recommending an end to all cesses and surcharges on taxes, and free pricing of fertiliser and fuel ahead of the Union Budget for 2009-10, the Economic Survey suggested on Thursday aggressive disinvestment and financial sector reforms to bring the economy back to high growth track.
With jobs vanishing by the thousands as a fall-out of the economic downturn, the Economic Survey on Wednesday asked the government to review labour laws for pushing growth in employee-intensive sectors.
The government should lift the ban on futures trading on rice, sugar, tur and urad and decontrol sugar sector, saying the resultant price discovery would help farmers and other stakeholders, the Economic Survey said on Thursday.
On the eve of the Budget presentation, economists on Thursday said the they expect the government to roll back some of the stimulus measures, as the economic growth is on rebound with the Economic Survey projecting the GDP to expand by up to 8.75 per cent in FY'11.
Investors in Sensex companies turned richer in 2009, raking in returns of over 76 per cent on their investments, as the collective market valuation of the 30-blue chip companies nearly doubled to Rs 26.49 lakh crore last year, the Economic Survey said on Thursday.
Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee on Thursday said that financial year 2009-10 was ending with clear signs of economic rebound and the growth would rise to about 8.5 per cent in the next fiscal.
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