Terming HSBC's projection at 5.2 per cent for the current fiscal as incorrect, Ahluwalia said the second half is likely to be better than the first half's.
Asian soccer chief Mohamed Bin Hammam was banned for life Saturday after being found guilty by world football's ruling body of trying to buy votes ahead of last month's FIFA presidential election.
Currently 100 per cent FDI is allowed in the sector.
The authority is set to cross the target by the end of this month, with a million enrolments every day. It has already allotted 116.3 million Aadhar numbers.
Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh has convened a meeting of senior ministers on Tuesday to discuss the recommendations of the National Advisory Council on the Food Security Bill.
According to principal advisor with the Planning Commission and former chief statistician, Pronob Sen, there were 40-45 million more people in the age group of 15-59 between 2004-05 and 2009-10. The unemployment rate has correspondingly fallen from 2.3 per cent to 2 per cent of the labour force.
Parliament proceedings were washed out for the fifth straight day, as members from parties including the Telugu Desam Party and the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, continued their protests on various issues.
The government is doing a lot to push growth but the impact of its efforts will be felt in the second half of the fiscal when the expansion rate will show some improvement, Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia said.
Reserve Bank of India, in consultation with the government, has raised the FII investment limit in government securities by $5 billion to $20 billion.
The country's economic growth rate slipped to 5.3 per cent in the fourth quarter of 2011-12, lowest in nearly 9 years due to poor performance of the manufacturing and farm sectors.
Chief Minister Zoramthanga, deputy CM Tawnluia, ministers, and MLAs of the state cutting across party lines took part in the massive protest rally in Aizawl.
He was speaking to reporters along with Union Minister of State for Planning Ashwini Kumar on the sidelines of the Regional Consultation with five Eastern States on the Approach Paper to be finalised by the Planning Commission.
Riniki Bhuyan Sarma, the wife of Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, has filed a Rs 10 crore defamation suit against Congress MP Gaurav Gogoi for 'false' allegations of irregularities in a food processing project.
The Supreme Court in its order said it was not open for SP group companies to call Ratan Tata a "shadow director" when the board of which Cyrus Mistry was chairman had nominated him as chairman emeritus of the USD 100 billion salt-to-software Tata group.
India can raise funds through selling up to\n49 percent of its state-run firms, Montek Singh Ahluwalia, deputy chairman of the\nPlanning Commission, has said.
'Das is friendly, but he finally does what he does. The quality of engagement is very good.'
Notably, when asked by reporters if he would take legal recourse after Ajit Pawar took oath as deputy chief minister on Sunday, Sharad Pawar had said he would not get into all this but will go among people.
Invitees to the 'pran pratishtha' consecration ceremony at the Ram temple started arriving Sunday in Ayodhya -- once a sleepy town now resplendent with new infrastructure and gripped by heightened religious fervour on the eve of a seminal event in India's political and religious history.
Differing with International Monetary Fund's growth forecast of 4.9 per cent for India during 2012, Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia said it has a statistical problem.
The scion of the former royal family of Tripura said many leaders have deserted him without understanding his feeling for putting up a fight for protecting the rights of poor people
The Plan panel on Wednesday said the government's refusal to accord environment clearance to Vedanta's proposed $1.7 billion aluminium project in Orissa would not tarnish India's image as an investment friendly destination.
Farm activists say low MSP is fine, if salaries revised under the Sixth Pay Commission are lowered.
India on Wednesday said the adoption of the Comprehensive Convention against International Terrorism would provide a legal base for a fight against the global scourge, noting that the United Nations' global counter-terrorism strategy would be incomplete without such a convention. In an address to the ongoing 66th session of the United Nations General Assembly, Rajya Sabha Deputy Chairman K Rahman Khan termed terrorism as a "scourge of humanity" and a global problem.
Under attack over the Rs 32 per capita per day (in urban India and Rs 26 per day per person in rural areas) cut off for poverty line, the Planning Commission on Monday distanced itself from the controversial definition presented to the Supreme Court saying it did not represent its views.
IT major Infosys Technologies Ltd became the first Indian company to remotely ring the opening bell of Nasdaq from its Mysore campus on Monday.
The industrial growth number for the month of December has been revised upward to 2.53 per cent from the provisional number of 1.6 per cent released earlier.
The board of directors of Tata Steel, which met on Friday, appointed Jim Leng, chairman, Corus, as a non-executive independent director designated as deputy chairman.
The Reserve Bank of India announced measures late on Monday to curb the rupee's decline by tightening liquidity.
The Planning Commission said the decision of oil marketing companies to raise petrol price by Rs 3.14 per litre is a good news and will provide credibility to the economic reforms process.
"The performance of the public part of the (PPP) project should be subject to proper scrutiny but obviously where the private sector (is given) flexibility ... you cannot subject that to CAG scrutiny," Montek Singh, Planning Commission Deputy Chairman said when asked whether there is case for CAG scrutiny of PPP projects.
Ahluwalia also stressed on the need for aligning country's energy prices with the global rates and said, "because the climate change is ultimately caused by the use of fossil fuels, one critical issue is that we must have correct energy prices.
Modernisation of agricultural marketing is important, says Montek Singh Ahluwalia
Deficient monsoon is likely to pull down the economic growth in the current fiscal to about six per cent, from 6.5 per cent a year ago, the Planning Commission said on Friday.
Food inflation rose to 18.32 per cent for the week ended December 25, because of rise in prices of food items like onion, milk and meat.
The comment by the minister sparked anger with the Congress's Ghulam Nabi Azad saying it was sad that foreign media knew of it, but the minister didn't know of the incident.
Last year, the Planning Commission got the approval for the 9 per cent annual average economic growth target under the Approach document for the 12th Plan from the country's apex decision making body, the National Development Council, headed by the Prime Minister with all the chief ministers and Cabinet ministers on board.
Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission Montek Singh Ahluwalia on Monday admitted that there was concern across the country about the implementation of development schemes without any leakage.
Defending the government's decision to raise prices of petroleum products, the Plan panel said on Wednesday it would suck money from the system and ease inflationary pressure in the long run.
