The proposed National Food Security Act (NFSA) may have to be put off to 2012 due to financial constraints, going by a recent Planning Commission document which points out that additional resources of Rs 77,000 crore will be required to implement the programme.
Current account deficit, which represents flow of money out of the country barring capital movements, stood at $4.5 billion in the first quarter of previous financial year.
The Planning Commission on Friday said expansion of healthcare will be one of its top priorities during the 12th Five-Year Plan (2012-17) and it aims to increase spending in the sector to 2.5 per cent of the GDP from around 1 per cent at present by the end of the period.
Construction of 12 greenfield airports in different parts of the country is likely to start soon with the government granting them approval, Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel said on Tuesday.
It is heartening to know that, on the eve of the formulation of India's 12th Five Year Plan, the Planning Commission is making an attempt to sensitise senior officers, advisers and experts to the country's ground realities.
India will set up a high-level committee to identify areas for expanding economic ties with the United States, from where it expects an estimated investment of $250-300 billion in infrastructure space.
The chairman and CEO of Dow Chemicals Andrew Liveris will not attend the Indo-US CEO Business Forum meeting scheduled to be held in Washington.
Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee is leading a high-powered team of policymakers, including Commerce Minister Anand Sharma and Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia at the India-US CEOs Forum.
80% of beneficiaries in 300 districts to be linked with direct benefits transfer
Commerce Minister Anand Sharma and Planning Commission Deputy chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia will also participate in the India-US Business CEOs Forum Meeting.
To check onion prices, which soared to Rs 70-80 per kg, the government slapped a ban on onion exports till January 15 to improve domestic supplies and moderate price rise.
The 70-year-old is so unassuming that it is reported that he has not removed the name plate in his ancestral home in Jodhpur that reads, 'Judge, Supreme Court'.
The Planning Commission on Wednesday said that Rs 50,000-crore (Rs 500 billion) Infra Debt Fund for financing infrastructure projects will become operational by beginning of next fiscal.
His interaction was webcast live on Twitter.
Chairman of the Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister (PMEAC) Chakravarthi Rangarajan has resigned following the defeat of the Congress-led UPA in the general elections.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said, "I do not claim victory. These are ideas which are under discussion in various fora. The sherpas have been discussing these ideas and it is a process of give and take. But I do claim some credit that in my speech, I brought the development issue into the very forefront of sustainable, manageable growth process."
With over half the Plan funds that Parliament approves being spent through non-government channels, to cite the figure in CAG Vinod Rai's presentation to the Planning Commission, members of the Parliament have no way of knowing whether the money is properly spent.
The committee will suggest an action plan for abolishing the present system of classifying expenditure into plan and non-plan, an official statement said.
India can raise funds through selling up to\n49 percent of its state-run firms, Montek Singh Ahluwalia, deputy chairman of the\nPlanning Commission, has said.
Three Indian-Americans are running from Union City, California in the coming November 2 election. They believe, "If you want to be the part of the community, they have to come forward and participate in the system."
The nation's highest policymaking body, the National Development Council, will focus on five key areas, including the Naxal menace, power reforms and water crisis, at its meeting on Saturday.
Handed over the charge of BJP's campaign in the next Lok Sabha polls, Narendra Modi on Sunday virtually sounded the election bugle as he targeted the UPA government over various fronts and asked party cadres to work for "Congress-free Bharat Nirman".
Haldea's report requires serious rethinking of the NHAI model, not an outburst by Kamal Nath.
The rupee will soon join the elite currencies like the US dollar, the euro, British pound and Japanese yen in having a distinct identity.
Industrialist Anil Ambani on Wednesday met Planning Commission deputy chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia, who is reportedly in the reckoning for the post of Finance Minister in the new UPA government.
Government support to Budget 2011-12 - or, gross budgetary support (GBS) - is likely to rise by 18 per cent over last year, taking Planning Commission estimates made at the beginning of the 11th Plan (2007-12). With those estimates, the government has with it resources worth Rs 3.73 lakh crore to fund the Budget for the last year of the Plan.
With domestic production of just over 140 million standard cubic meters per day meeting barely half the demand, India is importing 10 million tons of liquefied natural gas per annum and is looking at unconventional sources like shale gas.
Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia says Commerce Minister Kamal Nath had warned him in advance that he was going to criticise the apex planning body in public.
Pitching for more public-sector role in health, Planning Commission deputy chairperson Montek Singh Ahluwalia said on Monday health and education are two areas where the private sector is welcome to make investments but the government needs to be dominant.
In the mid-1980s, India and the US struggled to arrive at sufficient confidence for Washington to even sell a supercomputer to India for monsoon prospecting. Now, the most sensitive military technologies, data, and intelligence resources are being shared. This would not have happened without that one, big deal that changed the fundamentals of India-US relations, notes Shekhar Gupta.
'This updated NPR database along with Aadhaar Number would become the mother database and can be used by various government departments...' the home ministry declared in July 2015. 'UID/Aadhaar has been used as a fish bait to ensnare and entrap present and future generations of citizens,' warns Gopal Krishna.
President Pratibha Patil has nominated five prominent citizens to the Rajya Sabha, based on recommendations made by the Union cabinet.
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Prime Minister Narendra Modi has asked NITI Aayog to frame policies to propel India into the next century.
Emerging economies can expand at a "reasonable pace" in the next four to five years even if growth in developed nations is moderate, Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia said.
'When you forgive a farmer's loans there is this ideological economists lobby which says: 'That's socialism. And that's bad'.' 'But to forgive the loans of big people, so that they will be interested to invest further is capitalism and is good.'
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.
Deputy Chairman of Planning Commission, Montek Singh Ahluwalia, is among 19 members chosen by UN chief Ban Ki-moon for a high-level advisory group on Climate Change Financing tasked with mobilising funds pledged during the Copenhagen meet to tackle global warming.
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.
Indian economic growth had slowed down to 6.7 per cent during 2008-09 due to the impact of global financial crisis from average of 8.7 per cent in the previous five years.
"It is completely false. I don't know what is the basis of this. I am not a candidate. This is some speculative thing in the New York Times," Ahluwalia said.
