Cash or food, which will better benefit the poor? This deceptively simple looking question is currently at the centre of a sharply bitter dispute.
On Tuesday, the partially convertible rupee, the worst performing currency among the major global economies, dropped as much as 3.1 percent to 68.12 per dollar.
A first step in that direction has been taken by the prime minister by setting up an expert panel headed by his economic advisory council.
Bullion imports are expected to fall by about 29 per cent this fiscal to USD 44 billion, the Prime Minister Economic Advisory Council said in a report released on Friday.
Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee has refused to endorse any law that leaves the job of buying 70 per cent of the land to the private sector.
The government is likely to give a legal right to food to both priority and general categories of the population under the proposed National Food Security Act, as suggested by the Sonia Gandhi-led National Advisory Council (NAC).
Prime Minister's Economic Advisory Council Chairman C Rangarajan on Thursday pitched for a "substantial" increase in prices of diesel and cooking gas, saying failure to take strong steps would derail the fiscal consolidation process.
Industrial growth has entered the negative zone in October, two years after the global financial crisis. But Prime Minister's Economic Advisory Council chairman C Rangarajan pins hopes of a revival in the fourth quarter.
Perturbed over huge wastage of food on social events in the country, the government has said that it will study the "one-dish" law of Pakistan and similar legislations of other countries to deal with the problem.
The food security Bill is likely to adopt a three-pronged strategy to ensure food for all, particularly for the most vulnerable sections of the society. The National Advisory Council (NAC) in its initial discussions on the Bill had talked about a universalised scheme.
Members of the National Advisory Council on Friday demanded tabling of the Prevention of Communal and Targeted Violence bill in the winter session of Parliament.
The Prime Minister's economic panel said high food inflation reflects lacklustre performance of the farm sector, which together with infrastructure, remains the main bottlenecks to higher growth.
Amid the crisis in Libya, increase in fuel prices would become 'inevitable' if crude oil remains at $100 per barrel, Prime Minister's Economic Advisory Council chairman C Rangarajan said on Monday.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh last month had said inflation would moderate to 5-6 per cent by the end of the calender year.
With high prices remaining a concern, Prime Minister's Economic Advisory Council chairman C Rangarajan on Wednesday said all policy measures, like rate hikes and intervention in grain markets, will be undertaken to bring down inflation to comfort zone of 4-5 per cent.
Bold reform measures to sustain high growth trajectory figure high.
Main difference has been on including people above the poverty line in the Food Security Bill.
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's projected growth rate may be marginally affected if there\nis a bad monsoon, as it will affect agricultural output, said Suresh Tendulkar,\nchairman of the prime minister's Economic Advisory Council.
Reserve Bank on Friday raised key interest rates by 25 basis points, its 12th such hike since March, 2010.
Food inflation is an area of concern for the common man and government with rate of price rise touching as high as 18.32 per cent in the last week of December mainly fueled by mass consumption items like vegetables, milk and protein-based items.
The dismal factory output growth was on the back of a poor performance by manufacturing, mining and capital goods segments.
The central bank is slated to review its credit policy on January 25.
With Congress president Sonia Gandhi appointed the chairperson of the National Advisory Council, the Bharatiya Janata Party on Monday night claimed she has become part of the Union government and sought to bring her in the firing line for the acts of 'omission and commission' of the Centre.
Slow growth of the US and Europe will have some adverse affect on Indian exports.
The Minimum Wages Act will be amended to enact a new centrally set minimum, in the wake of the National Advisory Council's suggestion on asymmetries in this regard between states on payments for work done on schemes under the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act.
Any attempt to push growth beyond 9.5 per cent in the 12th Plan period that begins next year may lead to higher inflationary pressures and current account deficit woes, says Chairman of the Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister, C Rangarajan.
The foodgrain guarantee is part of the proposed National Food Security Bill.
Though the fate of the Rs 51,000-crore (Rs 510-billion) project hangs in balance after a four-member Forest Advisory Council filed a split report on withholding environment clearance, people in this coastal village, the hotbed of the resistance movement, are worried about getting displaced.
The National Advisory Council's Communal Violence Bill has already run into rough weather after it faced protests from various sections of the society. The bill is dangerous in nature and the provisions of this bill give the impression that every act of communal violence is presumably committed by a member of the majority community, say those opposing the bill.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh mourned his death in his message to Tendulkar's wife Sunetra.
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.
Inflation, as measured by the Wholesale Price Index, stood at 8.66 per cent in April.
Rangarajan's reaction came after the release of the latest data, which showed headline inflation going up to 9.06 per cent in May from 8.66 per cent in April on the back of rising prices of manufactured products and petrol.
Food inflation rose to 17.47 per cent in the third week of November against 15.58 per cent in the previous week.
While bankers and experts expect the lending rate to fall by about one percentage point in the near-term, the Prime Minister's Economic Advisory Council has strongly pitched for rate cut by the RBI in its monetary policy review later in the month.
Financial services firm Goldman Sachs has started a $500-million initiative to support small businesses across the United States, with legendary investor Warren Buffett as an adviser.
Former Union panchayat raj minister Mani Shankar Aiyar, lately in the news for denouncing the Commonwealth Games, is aiming his guns much closer to the United Progressive Alliance government's heart, at the way it is implementing the flagship National Rural Employment Guarantee Act.
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