Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Ahluwalia on Tuesday ruled out any more stimulus package for industry as the Budget has given a substantial boost to the slowing economy.
Given the anticipated overall GDP growth of over 8 per cent, the poor acceleration in the farm sector that still supports nearly 65 per cent of the population is an indictment of the strategy of 'inclusive growth'.
The growth projection is likely to be revised upwards mainly on account of better than estimated performance of the manufacturing sector.
Asked whether the improvement in the index of industrial production data, released today, indicates that the worst is over for industry, Ahluwalia said, "We do believe that the worst is over. (But) there is difference between the worst being over and getting back to robust growth.
The Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP) under the Ministry of Commerce has called a meeting on July 10 to discuss the foreign direct investment (FDI) policy in the cigarette industry.
The government may for the first time in about five years raise price of natural gas produced by state-owned firms like Oil and Natural Gas Corporation after the finance ministry and the Planning Commission backed the proposal for a 30 per cent hike.
Strangely, no consolidated figures on infrastructure investments made on ground are ever disseminated by any official arm of the Government of India.
Brazil, Russia, India & China (known collectively as BRIC) on Sunday sought a re-balancing of representation on the executive board and the International Monetary and Financial Committee of the International Monetary Fund (IMF). The committee is the policy-making arm of the IMF.
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 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.
Ahead of the G-20 Summit, Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia will lead a delegation to a preparatory meet on March 11 in London where deliberations on issues like liquidity crunch and reforms in international financial institutions are likely be taken up.
Even if you raise the poverty line as much as the Expert Group does, it turns out just 11 per cent of Indians are poor, not 37 per cent -- that's a huge poverty of estimation.
"The word populist has negative overtones, but I am sure (the) finance minister will present a popular Budget. However, we should maintain the mystery of the Budget and you have to wait and see what comes out," Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Alhuwalia said.
The idea of modernising railway stations under a PPP arrangement was aired several years ago by the then railway minister, Lalu Prasad, who visualised attracting Rs 15,000 crore (Rs 150 billion) investment in 22 stations.
Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee, who took additional charge of the finance ministry recently, has rejected a Planning Commission proposal to increase the upper limit for Viability Gap Funding (VGF) for infrastructure projects coming up under the public-private partnership model.
In an interview with Business Standard's Sapna Dogra Singh and John Samuel Raja D, C Rangarajan says there are some encouraging signs in the economy, but the real recovery will come only in 2010-11.
The Cabinet's decision to auction 3G spectrum in January next year will give a fillip to investments in port, power, telecom and roads in the next 12-18 months, deputy Planning Commission chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia said.
Stressing the need for coal sector reforms, the presentation said, "Independent regulation of coal sector becomes essential to ensure that e-auction remains competitive, to fix formulae for price revision for long-term fuel supply, to fix trading margins and to improve exploitation and allocation of available resources.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said on Tuesday the global economic downturn which had affected Indian economy as well, is now coming to an end with slow return to normalcy.
It's high time the President intervened and saved the country, said Mamata.
He said that land, a state subject, was a big destination of black money while reform in political funding was also important
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".
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.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will preside over a full Planning Commission meeting on September 1 for the mid-term appraisal of the Eleventh Five-Year Plan period (2007-12).
The Indian economy rose by 7.9 per cent in the second quarter of this fiscal, belying analysts expectations of 6-6.6 per cent growth for the period.
"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.
Jadhav has a certain way with the crowds with his earthy Marathi speeches he got unprecedented crowds whenever he held public meetings as the VC and his innovative schemes at Pune University which took academia to the villages have made him a popular figure in Pune.
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.
Nilekani, who has been appointed by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to head the National Authority for Unique Identity, has been in the news for providing a unique identification number to all Indians.
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 Planning Commission has mooted an idea to expand funding from the Reserve Bank of India to the India Infrastructure Finance Company Ltd, so that infrastructure projects can access finance at lower cost from the government-owned IIFCL.
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.
The impact of stimulus measures was evident as manufacturing grew by 10.2 per cent, electricity by 10.6 per cent in August.
"It is a huge scam. . . . The CPI-M has been opposing this. The Parliamentary Standing Committee, of which I am the chairman, has also all along opposed it," Politburo member Sitaram Yechury said. He said the public-private participation route, pursued by the Planning Commission, was 'disastrous as finally the burden falls on the people'.
The DoP has moved a Cabinet note for the government to provide Rs 500 crore (Rs 5 billion) as initial capital to India Post towards starting a bank.
Nandan Nilekani will have the responsibility to lay down plans and policies to implement the Unique Identity card scheme and shall own and operate the UID database. The authority was notified on January 28 this year as an attached office under the aegis of the Planning Commission with an initial core team of 115 officials and staff. The scheme will be implemented in three years.
'Some of the policies NITI Aayog has taken, we feel lean towards the corporates.' 'In a democracy, when you are making a policy decision, you are expected to take the views of all the stakeholders.'
The centres will be set up under a pilot project on PPP (public-private partnership) mode across the country, principal advisor (skill development mission) of Planning Commission Jayati Chandra said, adding that these are expected to come up by the middle of the year.
The Planning Commission has scaled down the growth rate for the Eleventh Plan ending 2012 to 8.1 per cent from 9 per cent in the wake of the global financial crisis that slowed the pace of economic expansion.
Amid growing concerns that modernisation of the much-hyped Chennai and Kolkata airports may miss the deadline, their modernisation is all set to cost an additional Rs 1,000 crore (Rs 10 billion) to the state exchequer.
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