Parliamentary elections to begin on April 16
Source: The Hindu
The Lok Sabha elections will begin on April 16, Election Commission announced. The election for the Lok Sabha will be held in five phases beginning on April 16. The first phase of polls covers 124 constituencies.
The second phase covering 141 seats will be held on April 23. The third phase of polls will be held on April 30 at 107 seats; fourth phase on May 7 for 85 constituencies and last phase on May 13 for 86 seats. Counting of votes will take place on May 16. The new Lok Sabha will be constituted before June 2. Photo electoral rolls will be used in 522 out of 543 Lok Sabha constituencies for the first time, said Chief Election Commissioner N Gopalaswami.
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Interim Railway budget presented
New Delhi, India, 13 Feb 2009 |
The Union Minister for Railways, Shri Lalu Prasad briefing the media after presentation of the Interim Railway Budget 2009-10, in New Delhi on February 13, 2009. |
Mr. Lalu Prasad Yadav, Hon’ble Minister for Railways presented interim railway budget on 13.2.09. As the elections in LokSabhaare expected to be held before mid May 09, budget for the full financial year could not be presented. The highlights of the interim budget are as follows :
- Passenger fares of ordinary passenger trains reduced by one rupee for fares costing upto Rs. 50 per passenger for journey above 10 kms.
- Second class and sleeper class fares of all mail, express, passenger trains, reduced by 2% for tickets costing Rs. 50 and more per passenger.
- Fares of AC First Class, AC 2 Tier, AC 3 Tier and AC Chair Car also reduced by 2%.
- 43 new train services to be started in 2009 –2010. Extension of 14 train services envisaged and frequency of 40 trains to be increased.
- New railway divisions to be set up at Bhagalpurand Thane.
- Agartala, capital of Tripuraconnected by rail line.
- First rail service in Kashmir valley commenced from Anantnag to Rajwansher. This is to be extended to Baramullaand Qazigundin the coming months.
- Production of wagons to increase from 6000to 15,000 per annum.
- Railway investment in 11th plan to be Rs. 2300 billion, three times more than investment in 10th plan
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FM presents interim budget
New Delhi, India, 16 Feb 2009 |
The Union Finance & External Affairs Minister, Shri Pranab Mukherjee arriving Parliament House to present the Interim General Budget 2009-10, in New Delhi on February 16, 2009.
The Minister of State for Finance and Parliamentary Affairs, Shri Pawan Kumar Bansal is also seen. |
Mr. Pranab Mukherjee, Minister for External Affairs who is holding charge of Finance portfolio presented, on 16 February the interim budget for the year 2009-2010. Minister, in his speech, highlighted the major achievements of the government in the economic arena during the period 2004-2009, the main highlights of which are as follows:
- GDP increased by 7.5%, 9.5%, 9.7% and 9% during the years from 2004-05 to 2007-08 showing a growth of over 9% for three consecutive years for the first time
- Domestic investment rate as a proportion of GDP increased from 27.7% in 2003-04 to 39% in 2007-08.
- Annual growth rate of agriculture rose to 3.7% during 2003-04 to 2007-08. The food grain production touched an all time high of 230 million tones in 2007-08
- The interim budget did not have any major tax proposals and was in the form of a vote on account as the general elections . In his budget speech, Minister said that the revenue deficit for 2008-2009 would be 4.4% of GDP as against the budgeted figure of 1% of GDP and that the fiscal deficit would increase from the budgeted figure of 2.5% of GDP to 6% of GDP.
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Urban Cooperative Banks (UCBs) get RBI approval to convert a part of deposits into equity
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has given its approval to troubled urban cooperative banks (UCBs) to convert a part of their customer deposits into equity. The depositors can get into a mutual agreement with the management to convert their funds into the bank’s shares for a certain period that may vary from bank to bank. The depositor will earn dividend once the bank is revived. If the bank sinks, the shareholders’ fund would be put in a collection account of the entity that would take over the bank.
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No decline in Foreign Investments
There has been no decline in the investment due to global recession during 2008 as compared to 2007. To facilitate greater investment by the Overseas Indians, Ministry of Overseas Indian Affairs has established the Overseas Indian Facilitation Center (OIFC) as a not-for-profit trust in partnership with Confederation of Indian Industry (CII). OIFC organizes the investor meets in India and abroad to attract investment from overseas Indians. This information was given by the Minister of Overseas Indian Affairs Shri Vayalar Ravi in the Lok Sabha |
Kudos to slumdog millionaire team / smile pinki for success at the oscars
The President of India, Smt. Pratibha Devisingh Patil has been delighted by the success of the "Slumdog Millionaire" team in winning 8 Oscars at the Academy Awards in Los Angeles in the United States.
The President is especially happy that Shri A.R. Rehman has won two Oscars in the categories of Best Song and Best Score, Shri Gulzar for winning the award for the Best Song and Shri Pookutty for doing so in the Best Sound Mixing category.
The President has said that the awards to the three Indians, is recognition of their incredible talent at one of the highest levels by their peers.
The President is also happy that the film, " Smile Pinky", won the Oscar in the Best Short Documentary Category. The film is about the fight of a girl against a social stigma, an issue close to the President's heart. |
Govt. to launch National Solar Mission
It has been decided by the Prime Ministers Council to launch National Solar Mission as one of the eight National Missions on National Action Plan on Climate Change. This underlines India’s commitment to the global efforts to contain the climate change and also acknowledges of the fact that developing clean sources of energy is the fastest method to halt the process of rapid climate change. It has also been decided to identify a city as ‘’ Solar City ‘’ based on the criteria that the city reduces a minimum of 10% of its projected demand of conventional energy at the end of 5 years through energy efficiency measures and generation from renewable energy installations. Government has also identified 15 cities in this regard and directed them to prepare their master plans. India receives solar energy equivalent of 5000 trillion kWh per year. The target set for solar power generation during the 11th Five Year Plan is 50 MW.
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