An inquiry by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation has been ordered into the Mangalore air crash and an Air India team will assist it in the probe, Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel said today.
The Rs 67,700-crore (Rs 677 billion) revenue boost from the auction of 3G spectrum licences will help the government reduce its borrowings in the current fiscal, Planning Commission deputy chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia said.
The Planning Commission on Monday lowered the target for construction of roads under the NHDP scheme to 2,500 km for the current fiscal from 3,165 km in the previous year, which was not met by the road ministry.
The Planning Commission on Monday set targets to augment the country's infrastructure this fiscal, including adding 20,359 MW of power generation capacity and 2,500 km of highways, its Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia said.
brass led by L K Advani on Wednesday submitted a memorandum on rising prices of sugar and essential commodities to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh who assured that the government would take appropriate steps to keep a check on it. Besides Advani, party president Nitin Gadkari, senior BJP leaders Sushma Swaraj, Arun Jaitley, Rajnath Singh, S S Ahluwalia, Ananth Kumar were also part of the delegation.
The Planning Commission on Tuesday said it expected industrial production to beat last year's growth and attributed the revival to various stimulus measures. His comments came after latest government data showed that factory production grew 11.7 per cent in November last year.
Following widespread drought and floods in various parts of the country, food inflation climbed to more than a 10-year high of 19.95 per cent in December, driven mainly by higher prices of potato, other vegetables and pulses.
Other members of the committee are Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations chairperson Isher Judge Ahluwalia, National Council of Applied Economic Research director general Suman K Bery and the secretaries of yje ministries of finance and petroleum.
Overall inflation, which has been in double digits for the last five months, was 10.55 per cent in June.
The Planning Commission on Tuesday said the Reserve Bank's decision to tighten the money supply will not have any impact on growth and the economy would do better than 8 per cent expansion rate projected by the central bank.
The MPs from Uttar Pradesh who may be given ministerial portfolios are: Anupriya Patel, leader of Bharataiya Janta Paty's ally Apna Dal; Shahjahanpur MP Krishna Raj and Chandauli MP Mahendra Pandey.
The Bharatiya Janata Party has praised Prime Minister Manmohan Singh for showing grace in apologising for the demeaning remarks made by a Congress member against Atal Bihari Vajpayee and said this situation would not have arisen had the offender himself done so a day earlier.
An inside look at the celebrations.
The Planning Commission on Friday said that high inflation, primarily driven by rising food prices, is likely to ease in the next few months on the back of an expected good rabi crop.
The Union government's response to the many comments and criticisms of the 2009-10 Budget was explored by Karan Thapar for Devil's Advocate, the CNN-IBN channel programme, with deputy chairman of the Planning Commission Montek Singh Ahluwalia.
BJP deputy leader in Rajya Sabha S S Ahluwalia said the main aim of the opposition was to register its protest against the 'anti-people' policies of the government.
On Tuesday, the government had agreed to refer it to the committee.
The RBI's big decision is not how much to ease but whether to monetise the fiscal deficit.
Ahluwalia's assessment of economic growth is marginally higher than 6.3 per cent projected by the Commission earlier.
Deputy leader of BJP in the Rajya Sabha, S S Ahluwalia, maintained that both Houses of Parliament had to be adjourned on Tuesday as the government did not agree to put to vote the discussion on price rise in the Upper House and did not accept adjournment motion in the Lok Sabha.
International economic diplomacy will be a major focus for the new government.
Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia on Monday expressed confidence that in the years to come India could emerge as the fastest growing economy in the world, beating China as the nation has yet to achieve its full growth potential.
If Modi's truly a reformer and a believer in minimum government, he would bury the Vodafone ghosts now. He would also then go to Bihar, campaigning on his politically controversial reforms. Both will need him to dip deep into his accumulated political capital and risk it, suggests Shekhar Gupta.
The government plans to resurrect the ministry of disinvestment in a bid to raise resources by selling its shareholding in public sector companies.
Even as the flagship National Rural Employment Guarantee Act scheme continues to face problems at the implementation level, Rural Development Minister Raghuvansh Prasad Singh, ignoring suggestions by Planning Commission Deputy Chairperson Montek Singh Ahluwalia and other economists, has refused to bring any major change in the scheme.
The government is likely to raise the Gross Budgetary Support (GBS)-- the amount of assistance provided by the Centre for Plan schemes-- by 15 per cent to Rs 2.60 lakh crore during 2010-11.
This failure of basic short-term policy is surprising, given the star power that this government brings to its economic management.
Gurupreet Kaur, who was a month shy of turning 7, was found dead by the US Border Patrol officials 27 kilometres west of Lukeville, Arizona, after her mother left her with other Indian migrants she was travelling with to go in search of water.
India's per capita green house gas (GHG) emission in 2030 will be well below those in the developed countries in 2005, according to a report.
Senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader Sushma Swaraj on Monday met expelled party veteran Jaswant Singh and is understood to have demanded that he step down from the post of chairperson of the parliamentary Public Accounts Committee.
Accusing the government of engaging in a 'game of quiet diplomacy' with certain groups in Jammu and Kashmir, a Bharatiya Janata Party Member of Parliament on Monday claimed it was playing into their hands by withdrawing 30,000 troops from the state. BJP leader S S Ahluwalia said during Zero Hour in Rajya Sabha that a 'game of quiet diplomacy is being played with certain groups'. Without naming the separatists, the BJP leader said, "There are secret meetings held with them."
Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia on Tuesday said that poor monsoon will adversely impact farm production and trim economic growth.
"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.
Brazil, Russia, India & China (known collectively as BRIC) on Sunday sought a re-balancing of representation on the executive board and the International Monetary and Financial Committee of the International Monetary Fund (IMF). The committee is the policy-making arm of the IMF.
The Planning Commission on said food prices will come down in the next two months easing the overall inflation, which is currently at over 8.5 per cent.
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.
Companies are either taking small government projects alone or bidding for larger ones with consortium partners. The companies, which had 18-75 per cent of their order books in property development, say they are facing payment delays of 20-90 days from some of the private developers, blocking their working capital requirements. Some of them take a week's advance payment from developers to execute their projects.
"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.
"The word populist has negative overtones, but I am sure (the) finance minister will present a popular Budget. However, we should maintain the mystery of the Budget and you have to wait and see what comes out," Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Alhuwalia said.
More often than not unskilled workers end up getting a raw deal.
