The Economic Survey 2007-08 has some interesting insights for infrastructure aficionados.
Railways proposed to introduce 32 new trains including 17 Samparak Kranti Express linking several state capitals and different parts of the country with the Union Capital.
The Rs 10,807-crore (Rs 108.07 billion) budget for implementation of Sixth Pay Commission recommendations and to fund various ongoing projects was passed by a voice vote. Some members were not satisfied with the budget. The BJD members walked out alleging that Orissa had been ignored.
In an unpopular decision, railway passenger fare was on Friday increased by 14.2 per cent in all classes while freight charge was hiked by 6.5 per cent with effect from Friday.
The 7th Pay Commission recommendations are a major challenge for the Railways.
Struggling to make ends meet, the railways have demanded a doubling of gross budgetary support from the government.
India is only on the starting block.
Industry players believe the new DFI model will be initially risk capital, which will then be used to mobilise additional resources from development agencies such as World Bank.
Railway Minister Lalu Prasad on Friday left freight rates unchanged in his interim budget to keep traffic from shifting to road transport that has become cheaper following cut in diesel prices.
A senior railway official said, "It (white paper) isalmost ready and final touches are being given to it."
The Lok Sabha will apply guillotine on discussions on demands for grants by the third week so as to complete the entire budgetary process in Parliament by July 27.
'You can never bring about a change if you only bring in outsiders. Consultants will never feel what changes are necessary and where,' says Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu.
India's cargo trains run at 19-30 km an hour, they run at 120 km in China - and the difference is only growing.
A new scheme -- 'Izzat' was unveiled on Friday by Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee for the workers in the unorganised sector who can now travel upto 100 kms with a monthly season ticket of Rs 25.
Stepped up public expenditure must be accompanied by focused policies, advises Vinayak Chatterjee.
Let's take a look at some of the fastest trains in the world.
Economic growth, which we are taking for granted, slows for a completely different set of local or global factors and the Modi premium vanishes, observes Debashis Basu.
Finance Minister Pranab mukherjee presents his 7th Budget.
The NSE Nifty ended at 2,948, up 55 points. The market breadth was fairly positive - out of 2,528 stocks traded, 1,455 advanced and 970 declined on Friday.
Despite public-private partnership projects announced in several rail budgets, the investment since 2000 has been merely Rs 3,000 crore.
Presenting his fifth Rail Budget in the Lok Sabha on Tuesday, Railways Minister Lalu Prasad said that the Railways had set up new profit records in 2007-08 attaining a profit of Rs 25,000 crore.
Raiwalys in existential crisis but no stock market route: Prabhu.
Offering a bonanza for train travellers, Railway Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal announced that the Indian Railways will start new trains.
The reassessed Plan size for the railways in 2012-13 has already shrunk to Rs 56,950 crore (Rs 569.5 billion) from Rs 60,100 crore (Rs 601 billion) after the first quarter.
'No Budget has so far has addressed the issue of the government's abysmal productivity of capital spending, improving which will be the big game changer. 'But, the government's tight lock on businesses, banks, education, and even essential services like transportation and large parts of infrastructure and healthcare is destroying capital year after year,' points out Debashis Basu.
Ritu Beri said the look of the uniform will be an ode to India and her exoticism
Government has been trying to get rid of the impression that it is caught in "policy paralysis".
The Budget sets out a comprehensive vision.
The Bharatiya Janata Party on Saturday released its manifesto for the November 17 Madhya Pradesh elections promising MSP for wheat at Rs 2,700 per quintal and paddy at Rs 3,100 and houses for beneficiaries of the state's flagship scheme 'Ladli Bahna'.
"The Rail Budget is likely to be presented on July 8. The ministry is preparing a status report to be presented before the Railway Minister. The report is to be submitted in a day or two and after that the budget outline will be drawn by the minister," a senior ministry official said.
Railways internal resources generation has been reduced due to various factors, including cost escalation and pay commission load.
The minister outlined proposals on cleanliness.
Railway Board chairman SS Khurana, in an interaction with the media after the Interim Rail Budget, said the railways would lose Rs 700 crore (Rs 7 billion) annually following the fare cut. He also pointed out that the ministry would continue to optimise freight earning through its dynamic pricing policy.
The opposition parties will meet on Monday morning to evolve their strategy in both Houses of Parliament after protests by them on the Hindenburg-Adani issue overshadowed most of the first half of the Budget session.
Soon after Union Finance Minister P Chidambaram presented the Union Budget 2013 in Parliament, Trinamool Congress leader and former Railway Minister Dinesh Trivedi joined us for the Budget chat.
'Making the railways better is a different type of a challenge.'
Total subsidy bill could come down to around Rs 2 trillion.
With Mamata Banerjee leaving passenger fares untouched and announcing a slew of concessions for technicians of regional film industry, cancer patients and press correspondents, railways' earnings from passenger operations may be strained further.
Capital expenditure (capex) by 54 large central public sector enterprises (CPSEs) and five departmental arms with an annual capex target of Rs 100 crore and above has reached around 42.5 per cent of their annual target of about Rs 7.33 trillion in this financial year so far, a senior official from the Ministry of Finance told Business Standard. "The Centre is pushing the big public undertakings in the infrastructure and refinery sector to achieve 90 per cent of their target by the end of the third quarter," he said. The capex by this group of CPSEs stands at around Rs 3.1 trillion in the April-August period so far.
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