Defending the government's decision to raise prices of petroleum products, the Plan panel said on Wednesday it would suck money from the system and ease inflationary pressure in the long run.
Ahluwalia said India is also interested in stepping up cooperation with China on railways development.
With industrial production contracting by 0.4 per cent in October, for the first time in 15 years, and the exports declining by over 12 per cent during the month, the government came out with a stimulus package on December 7 to spur growth and help the industry combat the impact of global financial meltdown. As part of the stimulus package, the government cut excise duty by 4 per cent across the board, except on petroleum products.
Mukherjee said uncertainty was still there on oil prices front due to unrest in West Asia and North Africa.
Planning Commission on Tuesday endorsed RBI's hawkish policy of hiking key rates by half a percentage point saying this would contain inflation.
The Plan panel on Wednesday said the government's refusal to accord environment clearance to Vedanta's proposed $1.7 billion aluminium project in Orissa would not tarnish India's image as an investment friendly destination.
Power distribution companies in the country are estimated to have incurred a staggering loss of about Rs 70,000 crore (Rs 700 billion) in the last fiscal and the amount is expected to be as much as Rs 1,16,000 crore (Rs 1,160 billion) by 2014-15.
The data further revealed that GDP growth rate was 9.4 per cent in the last quarter of 2009-10 and 8.3 per cent in the third quarter of 2010-11.
Although India's private health insurance industry's business volumes have grown by over 35 per cent a year in the last few years, a staggering 85 per cent of the population remains uninsured, according to industry estimates.
Students of Kolkata's Presidency College on Saturday hurled eggs and tomatoes at Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia to protest price rise while he was leaving a seminar, but missed their target.Eyewitnesses said that student demonstrators belonging to the Students Federation of India, affiliated to the Communist Party of India - Marxist, threw eggs and tomatoes and waved black flags at Ahluwalia as he was leaving a UGC-sponsored national seminar.
He rejected the recommendation of the report that "major emitters" in developing countries should aim at an emission trajectory that peaks in 2020 and leads to a 20 per cent cut by 2050.
The Foreign Investment Promotion Board on March 6 cleared the Malaysian budget carrier AirAsia's bid to launch an airline in India by joining hands with Tata Sons.
The plan panel on Thursday termed the housing finance racket, involving the chief of LIC Housing Finance and several other officials of PSU banks, as a "very small" incident as far as banking system as a whole was concerned.
On Monday, Reserve Bank hiked the lending rates to banks by 2 per cent to 10.25 per cent.
Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia said the government can consider some more measures to contain inflation if prices do not soften going ahead. Inflation touched a 42-month high of 7.57 per cent for the week ended April 19 as compared to 7.33 per cent in the previous week. When asked whether futures trading of food grains be banned to bring down prices, he replied that the expert committee has said that futures trading does not increase inflation.
Concerned over sluggish growth and poor investment climate, Assocham President Rajkumar Dhoot met Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia on Thursday and demanded the controversial tax proposal GAAR be put in 'cold storage'.
Under Railways, the two sides agreed to pursue specific collaboration arrangements in heavy haul, station redevelopment and raising speed of existing trains in India.
Says govt's focus is to re-assure foreign investors that India is wide open for business.
The Reserve Bank of India has already raised its key short-term rates by 25 basis points to cool inflation and many experts believe that it will make money dearer to tame inflation in its April 20 annual monetary policy announcement.
Concerned over rising food prices, planning commission deputy chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia on Monday pitched for increasing supplies through imports and better use of the public distribution system.
India should learn to live with high energy prices for rapid economic growth, said Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia after two of the state-owned oil companies hiked petrol rates this week.
Inclusiveness is not just about poverty reduction, it is much more than that
Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia today said the country would need to spend eight per cent of its GDP on the sector during the 11th Plan to ensure a 10 per cent economic growth.
If Kamal Nath launches a broadside, it is because his ministry now can no longer afford to ignore the advice that comes from Yojana Bhavan.
"I am in favour of generally multilaterally liberalising trade and I think the rest of the world is moving towards doing that in a parallel track," says Montek Singh Ahluwalia.
The tug of war between the finance ministry and the Planning Commission over more resources for plan projects worsened, with Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia saying he was keen on getting more money for the 11th Plan.
Overall inflation, which has been in double digits for the last five months, was 10.55 per cent in June.
Finance minister Pranab Mukherjee, however, had said that stimulus measures need to continue till there is robust recovery in the developed world, which account for bulk of India's exports.
India's fiscal deficit is expected to be 5.6 per cent of gross domestic product this fiscal as against the budget estimates of 4.6 per cent of GDP.
In its mid-quarter review of monetary policy, RBI on Wednesday kept all key interest rates unchanged notwithstanding persistent high inflationary pressure.
Ahluwalia said that emerging markets would need to focus more on FDI and bonds among other measures to make up for the fall in bank credit.
Amid the controversy raging over the definition of poverty, Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia and Union Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh on Monday claimed that they have resolved the issue.
The price rise measured in terms of Wholesale Price Index rose for the second straight month, to 5.79 per cent in July, on account of double digit rise in prices of food articles, mainly vegetables, including onion.
"The full impact of the Dubai debt crisis is yet to be assessed, but there is no need to press the panic button," said Pranab Mukherjee.
Asked whether the improvement in the index of industrial production data, released today, indicates that the worst is over for industry, Ahluwalia said, "We do believe that the worst is over. (But) there is difference between the worst being over and getting back to robust growth.
"They (prices of petroleum products) should be linked to world prices," Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia told PTI when asked about the global crude prices now surging to about $70 a barrel.
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