Conceding that the fiscal deficit could exceed the targeted 4.6 per cent of GDP for 2011-12 by up to one percentage point, Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia today said such a situation need not be a matter of concern.
The current account deficit is the difference between inflow and outflow of foreign exchange.
A 1970 Kerala-cadre IAS officer, Chandrasekhar has been revenue secretary in the Finance Ministry and ambassador and permanent representative at the World Trade Organisation.
The Planning Commission was better than the Niti Aayog as it used to take up the issues of the states with the ministries concerned.
Money to be used for the Rs 174,000-crore Bharat Nirman programme to develop rural infrastructure.
Even if the new body focuses on long-term planning, it is unlikely to do so through five-year Plans.
States' demand for 5 years and Constitutional provision ruled out
The Budget shouldn't be stuck on fiscal numbers, the PMO apparently said.
The implementation of their recommendations means that an adequate apparatus to change this is at the disposal of the government.
The prime minister's economic advisory council was disbanded early on, and not reconstituted.
There were reports that some Commission officials were against the Rajan panel's suggestion to replace Gadgil- Mukherjee formula with Rajan Committee's Multi Dimensial Index for allocation funds to states.
While Congress-ruled states such as Kerala, Karnataka and Assam expressed fears about the sudden demise of the planning process and wondered what it would be replaced with, also worrying about the immediate implications on annual Plan outlays, Andhra Pradesh said it was considering setting up its own NITI Aayog.
NITI Aayog has a dual role of a monitor and advisor.
India must have a "contingency plan" in place to ring-fence the country's economy if the political showdown in the US leads to a default on its international monetary obligations, industry body Assocham said.
Survey likely to be tabled in July by the new government.
The government must expedite its plan for asset sale and privatisation, both of which hardly got any mention in the Budget speech, points out A K Bhattacharya.
It would be a good idea to create independent oversight committees for each regulatory institution and indeed, even for their appellate bodies, says A K Bhattacharya.
Vodafone Idea's (Vi's) search for a lifeline has turned longer and tougher even as it continues to lose customers and delay vendor payments. Vi's much-needed Rs 1,600-crore fundraising plan got stuck due to the government's silence on picking up a proposed 33 per cent equity in the financially stressed telco. The development spells further trouble for the company, which has an overall debt pile of Rs 2.2 trillion, including hefty dues to the government.
Besides advancing the presentation of the Budget to perhaps the first week of January, , there are four new initiatives that could be rolled out from the next Budget, says A K Bhattacharya.
This is the fourth such recruitment drive proposed to be undertaken by the Narendra Modi government which had in 2018 initiated lateral entry.
Adani Power, part of the Adani group, plans to add close to 6 gigawatts (Gw) of new power assets in the next five years, according to an investor presentation by the company. That is clearly meant to ride on India's burgeoning power demand. But there is another side to it: All of this new capacity is expected to be thermal power, or power produced from coal.
"For the Lok Sabha elections, we are making meticulous planning on all fronts including electronic voting machines (EVMs) and the voter verifiable paper audit trail (VVPAT)," he said.
Some experts had said the Budget did not have much in terms of big ideas.
80% of beneficiaries in 300 districts to be linked with direct benefits transfer
FinMin does not expect tax or non-tax revenue to reach anywhere close to the targets set in the interim Budget. Sources say that the challenge before the new government will be either to accept the reduced projection and tailor the Budget accordingly or set a more ambitious target.
Arvind Subramanian, a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics, was informally recommended to the post by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley.
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