Economy News Notes

The Central Government is gearing up to offload 5 per cent equity in blue chip ONGC by December end in its bid to meet at least part of the ambitious disinvestment target of Rs.40,000 crore for the current fiscal.
The 5 per cent stake sale in ONGC is estimated to fetch the government Rs.12,000 crore. After the follow on offer (FPO), its stake in ONGC will come down to 69.14 per cent from 74.14 per cent.
Further, the status report also said the public offer of Maharatna steel firm SAIL would hit the markets only when market conditions improves.Through the share sale, the government plans to divest its 5 per cent stake in SAIL

Contrary to certain views that growth in the Indian agriculture sector has stagnated, Mr Montek Singh Ahluwalia, Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission, said, the panel expects growth to touch 3.5 per cent during the Eleventh Plan Period, as against 2 per cent in the previous period.
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the Planning Commission was targeting a higher growth rate of 4 per cent in this sector during the 12 {+t} {+h} Plan Period.
India will have to continue to import coal at higher prices. You cannot fight higher energy prices. And the sooner we adjust ourselves to this (high energy cost regime) it is better
the Planning Commission target of adding 100,000 MW of power generation capacity during the 12 {+t} {+h} Plan Period.

The global downturn could lead to a shortfall of 5 per cent in investment targets for the infrastructure sector during the 11 {+t} {+h} Five-Year Plan, the Plan terminates on March 31, 2012.
The Government had initially targeted investments worth 9 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP)
According to the Planning Commission, storage, ports and Railways have done very badly in terms of meeting targets, while telecommunication, airports and gas pipeline managed to attract more than the target.

A surge in the price levels of food, clothing and fuel items pushed up the Consumer Price Index (CPI) by 1.25 per cent on a sequential basis in September. The main increase was seen in case of vegetables