"The full impact of the Dubai debt crisis is yet to be assessed, but there is no need to press the panic button," said Pranab Mukherjee.
This failure of basic short-term policy is surprising, given the star power that this government brings to its economic management.
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.
Reasserting the fact that India could easily attain a growth rate of above 7 per cent in the next financial year, Planning Commission deputy chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia said on Sunday India was not extensively dependent on the global economic recovery for its own growth projections.
Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia, who has just resigned, on Monday remained non-committal on his prospects of becoming finance minister while describing reports on this as "speculation".
In view of declining inflation and recessionary conditions, the Planning Commission expects industry to cut prices in the normal course to battle economic slowdown.
The meetings with Singh and Ahluwalia have taken place just two days before the announcement of the results of the general elections for the 15th Lok Sabha. Besides Karnik, the other nominees on the Satyam board are HDFC chairman Deepak Parekh, former ICAI chairman T M Manoharan, CII chief mentor Tarun Das, LIC executive S B Mainak and former presiding officer of Securities and Appellate Tribunal C Achuthan.
"The rest of the world should pass a motion of thanks to India for keeping its emission at a level which actually is below the level required to achieve climate sustainability," says Montek Singh Ahluwalia, a key member of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's economic team.
More often than not unskilled workers end up getting a raw deal.
The global financial meltdown has pulled down India's economic growth to 6.7 per cent during 2008-09 from about 9 per cent a year ago. During the current fiscal, as per the Planning Commission estimates, growth rate may fall to 6.3 per cent.
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.
The Planning Commission on said food prices will come down in the next two months easing the overall inflation, which is currently at over 8.5 per cent.
The Planning Commission on Monday said the fiscal deficit, the difference between total revenue and expenditure, will not exceed the budgetary estimate of 6.8 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP).
There is no doubt that economic growth has picked up. It's also true that inflation has edged up. We had said at the beginning that sometime in the course of the year we would begin to slowly wind it down and what has happened is on course for that decision but exactly what, it's too early to say, says Montek Singh Ahluwalia.
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.
This is a 22 per cent hike compared to the funding the state received last year.
Setting at rest speculation about the possibility of tax cuts to boost growth, the Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia on Tuesday said the government will not change the tax structure during the current fiscal, ending March 31.
Hailing the Budget 2009-10 as "growth oriented", Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia on Monday said there would be no need for another stimulus in the current fiscal.
He also indicated that the current position of the rupee is competitive against world currencies.
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 meetings with the investors at New York, according to sources, are being organised by the US-India Business Council. The USIBC is the premier business advocacy organization representing America's top companies investing in India, joined by global Indian companies, promoting economic reforms with an aim to deepen trade and strengthen commercial ties.
With the inflation rate almost halving from the peak levels in August and economic growth slackening, Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia today said there is further scope for the Reserve Bank of India to cut lending rates.
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.
Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia has said agriculture growth in the country cannot double without the involvement of the corporate sector.
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.
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.
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 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'.
The impact of stimulus measures was evident as manufacturing grew by 10.2 per cent, electricity by 10.6 per cent in August.
India is expected to record a gross domestic product (GDP) growth rate of 6 per cent this fiscal, which will improve further in the next fiscal with likely recovery in the global economy, Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia said.
Addressing the fourth India Investment Forum in New York, Montek Singh Ahluwalia highlighted the steps the government was taking to attract investments in the infrastructure sector, saying it is open to suggestions which they might have to offer.
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 Planning Commission sees stronger economic expansion in the second half which could push up the growth rate for the current fiscal to beyond 6.3 per cent projected earlier by the panel.
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.
"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.
'The Congress saw Rahul as the natural leader of the party and wanted him to take a larger role'
Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia, on Wednesday allayed fears over significant hardening of interest rates in view of the high government borrowings, pegged at around Rs 4.5 lakh crore (Rs 4.5 trillion) this fiscal.
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.
Planning Commission deputy chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia said on Thursday that inflation would go up and hover between 4 and 5 per cent by the end of this year.
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