Economy News Notes:

Union Cabinet on Wednesday deferred a decision on the proposal of the Disinvestment Department to raise Rs.40,000 crore from divestment of PSUs through buyback and other modes.
The Department of Disinvestment had sought opinion of the respective ministries on disinvestment through the buyback mode.

Union Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises has sought higher outlay for the National Manufacturing Competitiveness Programme in the XII Plan.
The outlay for the programme during the XI Plan was Rs.100 crore and, “we hope to use the entire amount.
- The Ministry had sought Rs.5,000 crore for the programme for the XII Plan.
In the information and communication technology (ICT) component, the Ministry was listing companies through tender process to offer hardware on rental basis, provide tailor-made software and maintain it for the MSMEs.
The National Stock Exchange (NSE) and the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) would set up SME exchanges as independent units. A survey by the BSE indicated that nearly 5,000 SMEs were ready to avail themselves of equity through the exchange.
National Small Industries Corporation (NSIC), said it had developed 45 incubation centres on a pilot basis to help those who wanted to become entrepreneurs with training and other inputs.

The United States Federal Reserve will break with longstanding tradition to start announcing on a quarterly basis its forecasts for short-term interest rates and other indicators of economic conditions
In an unprecedented shift that will bring its practices more in line with those of other central banks including the Reserve Bank of India, the Fed revealed that during its Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) discussions had noted that “Adding their projections of the target federal funds rate to the economic projections already provided in the Summary of Economic Projections (SEP) would help the public better understand the Committee's monetary policy decisions.”
Some participants expressed concern that publishing information about participants' individual policy projections could confuse the public