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.
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.
The country's new home minister, Palaniappan Chidambaram, today said he prefers a Congressman as his successor in the finance ministry, setting off speculation about the implication of his statement.
The summit in Korea, Ahluwalia pointed out, was the first to be held in a newly developed nation, as well as in Asia, home to many emerging nations. With the financial crisis that necessitated the meeting of minds in 2008 a thing of the past, Korea is keen to bring development to the forefront.
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.
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.
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.
A day before the announcement of the inflation data for August, the Planning Commission said that the figures would remain high but would start declining in subsequent months to reach a level of 6 per cent by December-end.
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.
A core group of ministers on Wednesday held inconclusive deliberations on a proposal to raise fuel prices, necessitated by a spike in global crude prices that threatens to spawn an oil import crisis.
The campaign aims to raise 1.25 billion pounds, and begins at a high profile international event in London on Wednesday. The launch event at the British Academy features the university's chancellor Lord Chris Patten, and vice-chancellor John Hood. Oxonians from various fields and countries have been roped in to raise funds that will be used to meet rising costs and steep competition from American universities.
The Energy Co-ordination Committee, headed by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, would meet on Tuesday with gas pricing, gas sourcing and gas allocation as the main topics on the agenda, an official source said.
More often than not unskilled workers end up getting a raw deal.
The commission had earlier projected a 2.5 per cent fall in the farm output due to weak monsoon but expects the drop to be less than that.
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.
The government is formulating a standard concession agreement for roads, ports and airports, expected to be ready by later this year.
This failure of basic short-term policy is surprising, given the star power that this government brings to its economic management.
India can now, if required, borrow up to $30 billion a year, up from $6 billion, from the International Monetary Fund for a three-month period which can be renewed twice more in 3-month cycles.
The government may raise the number of job days under the NREGA scheme to compensate rural households for loss of income due to a poor monsoon in large part of the country.
The principal Opposition party said an immediate cut in petrol and diesel prices was required in the larger interest of the nation. The BJP also demanded that interest rate on housing loans be brought down to 6 per cent and a real push be given for infrastructure development to 'avoid a catastrophe'.
This is a 22 per cent hike compared to the funding the state received last year.
Montek Singh Ahluwalia appealed to the Indian Diaspora at the PBD gathering to support health care ventures of the Indian government, for people below the poverty line.
Talking to reporters accompanying Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on his US visit, the deputy chairperson of the Planning Commission Montek Singh Ahluwalia said the trend of constant rising inflation in India was disappearing. Maintaining that the financial meltdown in the US has not had a direct impact on India, Ahluwalia said the country had an ample stock of foreign exchange reserves to deal with the temporary meltdown in financial markets.
The interest of the poor can be protected by providing targeted subsidy, Planning Commission's Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia said, adding that increased energy cost would have to be shared by the consumers as the burden is currently being largely borne by public sector oil companies.
While Lalu's chances of retaining Cabinet berth seems remote, experts believe there may not be too many new faces as far as important ministries are concerned.
Private partners like GMR and GVR, humiliated from time to time, have good reason to shrug their shoulders and argue that matters are outside their control.
Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel on Tuesday lashed out at the Planning Commission, holding it responsible for the delay in the modernisation of Kolkata and Chennai airports.
Higher economic growth can be sustained only in an atmosphere of reasonable price stability
The impact of stimulus measures was evident as manufacturing grew by 10.2 per cent, electricity by 10.6 per cent in August.
"Second quarter will be worse (than 6.1 per cent growth in Q1) and may be Q3 also," Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia said today after the full plan panel meeting. However, he said the economic growth will rebound in the fourth quarter to enable the economy to clock 6.3 per cent for the entire fiscal.
India has said it would exercise caution in embracing fuller rupee float since the gradual approach towards liberalising the foreign exchange regime has paid in the past.
The Planning Commission may suggest an increase in education fees for higher education to Finance Minister P Chidambaram this year. Do you think this hike is justified?
The Planning Commission on Tuesday warned that sector-specific regulators could become 'tension points' between them and the ministries and said there should be a common regulator for transport and energy sectors.
This is the message of the latest Human Development report, 2007-2008, which was released on Tuesday by Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia in New Delhi. The global release was in Brazil.
Congress president Sonia Gandhi and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will not be able to attend the annual World Economic Forum meeting to be held at Davos from January 24-28 next year.
'All of us have believed in decentralisation. You may not like property taxation, neither do I. My solution is that the Centre does the tax collection, but we can give a matching grant instead of redistribution,' says the outgoing CEA, Arvind Subramanian.
A joint statement issued at the end of an India-Japan energy dialogue said both the countries would explore ways and means to further cooperation in the field of new and renewable energy sources.
The amount involved is just 3.6 per cent of our forex reserves and the gains to be made are huge -- not to try the idea would be foolhardy.
Strongly favouring a hike in power and water user charges, Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia on Thursday
Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje claimed the deputy chairperson of planning commission Montek Singh Ahluwalia was very pleased with the performance of the state.
