The headline inflation declined to 9.11 per cent in November against 9.73 per cent in the previous month.
The office of Attorney General Goolam E Vahanvati has said he had offered advice as solicitor general to the then External Affairs minister Pranab Mukherjee and Telecom minister A Raja in 2007 on 2G spectrum issues but it was not written and there is no copy of it.
"Oil marketing companies are to take decision depending on cost of their imports. It is market related as per as oil market companies are concerned on petrol," Mukherjee told reporters.
The meeting, officials said, provided an opportunity for Mukherjee to hold comprehensive talks with the political leaders on a host of issues, including the India-Pakistan peace process.
India on Friday said Bhutan and its security is "intricately interlinked" and it is important for the two neighbours to be sensitive to each other's concerns, as President Pranab Mukherjee held wide-ranging talks with the Bhutanese leadership.
A day before unveiling the Budget, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee will table the Economic Survey in Parliament on Thursday which will take stock of the economy and also the impact of stimulus on industry.
Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee and Home Minister P Chidambaram's much-awaited statement before the media on the 11-page note of finance ministry on the 2G scam that indicts Chidambaram is a loss of face for Mukherjee, but it may prove a deceptive victory for Chidambaram at a later stage.
Defending the Centre's decision to deploy paramilitary forces in Lalgarh, Union Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee on Tuesday said the Centre could not sit idle when lives of people were in danger and the state government failed to reopen Lalgarh police station.
Recalling the steps taken by the government to deal with the issue, Mukherjee said, "Our efforts to tackle this menace have been increasing (and) we are committed to the goal of achieving zero tolerance against corruption."
Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee is cutting short his visit to Washington and rushing to New York to meet Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, amid a storm back home over his ministry's note to the prime ministers on the 2G scam.
Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee has rejected a proposal by Communications Minister A Raja for refund of the Rs 29,598 crore paid by state-owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited and Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited for third generation (3G) and broadband wireless access (BWA) spectrum.
Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee on Tuesday held a meeting with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on the sidelines of a meeting of CEOs from India and the US.
Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee on Tuesday announced a stimulus package for the economy, the third this financial year, cutting excise duty and service tax two percentage points each, effective midnight, and extending previous excise cuts beyond March 31, 2009.
Government on Friday ruled out replacing its Lokpal Bill with another, saying it will be better to have amendments to the one already introduced.
A day after the Reserve Bank raised its key interest rates to check inflation, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee on Wednesday indicated it may not be the last increase for now.
The praise for peasants, most of whom are subsistence farmers, comes ahead of general elections due in a few months. The minister presented statistics to hard-sell the government's initiatives to prop up the agriculture sector and improve the conditions of roughly about 60 per cent of the country's population depending upon it.
The government has pegged fiscal deficit at 5.5 per cent of gross domestic product for the next financial year, against the revised figure of 6 per cent in the current financial year. The fiscal deficit target for the current fiscal was 2.5 per cent. However, fiscal measures initiated in the wake of the global economic downturn and reduction in revenue collection have impacted resource mobilisation resulting in widening of deficit.
The Bharatiya Janata Party on Friday spurned Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee's request for inputs on the proposed Lokpal Bill, arguing it would not be proper for a political party to submit its views to a drafting committee comprising civil society members as it would upset constitutional propriety.
The tsunami of recession that originated in the Wall Street and spread to Europe did not affect India because our banks are conservative, said Overseas Indian Affairs Minister Vayalar Ravi while addressing a seminar at the 10th Pravasi Bharatiya Diwas in Jaipur on Sunday.
Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee lost his temper in the Rajya Sabha on Tuesday after being repeatedly interrupted by Communist Party of India - Marxist member Brinda Karat during discussions on the price rise issue. "I am not going to accept this. This is indiscipline. It is not permitted here," an incensed Mukherjee retorted at Karat's intervention. As she objected to his remarks, Mukherjee shot back, "Please do not show your temper here, show your temper somewhere else."
The Bharatiya Janata Party-led opposition walked out of the Lok Sabha on Thursday afternoon, specifically protesting on the issue of Balochistan and the delinking of terror from the composite dialogue process.
'Peace time was the best time for defence preparedness,' the defence minister said.
Africa is growing. India wants to play a part in its growth. It sees Libya as the gateway.
Pakistan has not responded officially on India's dossier on the terror attacks in Mumbai, External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee said in New Delhi on Tuesday.National Security Adviser M K Narayanan had told a TV channel on Sunday that Pakistan had sent two sets of questions about the dossier and Indian officials have already replied to one set of questions.
He, however, also felt that inflation has peaked and would begin falling and be lower than the 5.5 per cent projected by RBI for this fiscal.
For the past one-and-a-half months, railway minister Mamata Banerjee has stopped her informal interactions with finance minister Pranab Mukherjee after a sharp exchange on telephone over a municipal election issue.
Mukherjee said about Rs 2.42 lakh crore (Rs 2.42 trillion) in taxes is locked up in litigation before the CIT appeal, ITAT and high courts.
Voicing scepticism over Pakistan acting decisively against terrorists operating from its soil, External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee has said such elements have been let off in the past after some initial action."We can make available whatever evidences we have. In this case, we are also investigating, we have not come to any conclusion. Therefore at this juncture, perhaps, it would be premature to share the evidences," Mukherjee said during a TV interview.
During his whirlwind election tour in Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Puducherry, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee, also the United Progressive Alliance's chief interlocutor, tells Saubhadra Chatterji the government has its own way of moving against corruption:
The two also met corporate affairs minister Salman Khurshid, who asked them to keep his ministry in the loop.
India and China have established a Working Group to prepare a framework for the settlement of their vexed boundary issue, External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee announced at Harbin in China on Thursday. The 11th round of talks between the Special Representatives of India and China was successful and they have decided to set up a Working Group to prepare a framework for the resolution of the boundary issue, said Mukherjee.
India will not tolerate obstruction in fencing along LoC, says defence minister
Union Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee on Sunday said that the United Progressive Alliance government was ready to bring in and get the Lokpal Bill passed in the next session of Parliament if the Opposition cooperated with it.
Budget ideas from industry are irresponsible
He pointed out that wages under the NREGA have been increased from Rs 61 to Rs 100 which would lead to earnings of Rs 10,000 annually 'irrespective of qualification'. Mukherjee, who is the West Bengal Pradesh Congress Committee chief urged party workers to pinpoint failures in implementation of the scheme at the block and panchayat levels.
Maharashtra's beleaguered Chief Minister Ashok Chavan on Saturday met Congress president Sonia Gandhi after his name cropped up in a controversy surrounding the Adarsh housing society in Mumbai. Earlier, Sonia met Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh, political secretary to the Congress president Ahmed Patel, All India Congress Committee general secretary Janardhan Dwivedi and Union minister Prithviraj Chavan over the issue.
The finance minister also provided some relief to readymade garment manufacturers by raising the abatement available for levy of taxes on retail price of some branded garments and textile made-ups.
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