The meeting chaired by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was attended by Commerce and Industry Minister Kamal Nath and Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia. Industry leaders, including Ratan Tata, Rahul Bajaj, Mukesh Ambani and Sunil Bharti Mittal, who are members of the council, also participated in the discussions.
An expert committee, whose report is being awaited by the government to decide whether futures trading on essential commodities should be banned, has found no firm evidence that such trading was leading to rise in prices. An expert committee under the chairmanship of Planning Commission member Abhijit Sen to study the impact of futures trading on prices of agricultural commodities. Delisting of tur, urad rice and wheat from the futures market has not affected price movement.
Inflation rate fell to 0.27 per cent for the second week of March from 0.44 per cent for the week ended March 7. However, Planning Commission deputy chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia said on Thursday the Indian economy is not heading towards deflation despite inflation nearing the zero-level in the past few weeks.
A group of young Muslim women and a man here has decided to break fresh ground by moving for social reform and gender equality from within the community rather than defying its traditions and confines. Five women -- a qazi and four witnesses -- will solemnise the union of Naesh Hasan and her fiance. Hasan is founder member of the Bhartiya Muslim Mahila Andolan, a social organisation.
In other welfare schemes, such as those for cooking gas, pension and scholarships, which are linked to DBT, cash is transferred directly into the bank accounts of beneficiaries.
Planning Commission member Abhijit Sen on Wednesday said growth in the next fiscal may reach seven per cent due to the stimulus packages already introduced. On deflation he said, "I personally do not see any threat of generalised deflation, though it (might happen) in some sectors."
The Planning Commission has recommended that the private company in 50:50 joint sector infrastructure projects should be selected through competitive bidding.
The right policy response to global price increases is not straightforward. The draft report is wide-ranging in its scope, and it attempts to provide a coherent, integrated view of financial sector reforms that would equip India's financial sector to support growth, widen financial access and maintain stability over the next decades. The report is being released for public discussion at a critical juncture in both the domestic and global economy.
They are of the view that calling the new institutes "IITs" would dilute the brand image of the existing premier institutes, which figure among the world's 100 best technology universities and are compared with the likes of MIT, California University and Berkeley. The seven IITs are located in Kharagpur, Mumbai, Chennai, Kanpur, Delhi, Guwahati and Roorkee.
T C A Srinivasa-Raghavan recalls a tussle between the government and RBI when Rajiv Gandhi was prime minister and how it was resolved.
The Indian economy is expected to grow at least 7 per cent in the next financial year on the back of the two stimulus packages given by the government, but in the immediate-term there would be some pain and a rise in unemployment levels, Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission, Montek Singh Ahluwalia said.
One consequence of this shift will be that other sectors will see a reduction in the amount of resources allocated over the 11th Plan period. On the whole, the non-priority sectors, which accounted for 44.8 per cent of the total allocation during the 10th Plan period (2002-07), will now only get 25.3 per cent.
The meeting is likely to focus on removing impediments which are hampering implementation of the announced projects and policies which have been on the drawing board for long, official sources said. The social sector agenda of the prime minister includes pushing the Aam Admi Bima Yojana and Old Age Pension for the labour class, besides revamping Integrated Child Development Scheme and strengthening the public distribution system.
Deputy chairman of the Planning Commission Montek Singh Ahluwalia has been awarded the honorary degree of Doctor of Civil law at the University of Oxford.
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