Himachal Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal with Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia in New Delhi on Wednesday. The 2008-09 Annual Plan for Himachal Pradesh was finalised at Rs.2,400 crore at a meeting here on Wednesday between Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia and Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal. The Plan outlay includes an additional Central assistance of Rs.450 crore earmarked for priority projects.

Chandigarh, February 12 The councillors of Municipal Corporation Chandigarh have decided to review the draft budget estimates for the year 2008-09. A decision to this effect was taken at a meeting of Finance and Contract Committee on Tuesday. While some members claimed that no decision over the draft budget estimates was taken in the meeting, Mayor Pardeep Chhabra maintained that the budget has been approved and referred to MC House.

The budget session of Parliament will begin on February 25 with President Pratibha Patil addressing the joint session of both Houses at 11 am, it was officially announced here on Monday. While railway minister Lalu Prasad will present the rail budget for 2008-09 on February 26, finance minister P Chidambaram will present the general budget on February 29. The three-month session will witness a total 35 sittings with a break from March 21 to April 14. The session will end on May 9. TNN

All is set for yet another investors' summit in the State after the stupendous success of Global Investors Summit at Indore- Muslim Saleem

Andhra Pradesh Governor Narayan Datt Tiwari presented a bright picture of the State's economic health and unveiled a multi-pronged strategy for development in his maiden address to the joint session of the legislature that was marred by protests by Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) legislators here on Monday.

For a reforming Economy, India is letting a lot of things occur in the marketplace that evokes for it the adjective "dysfunctional'. They serve neither social purpose nor make any economic sense, and smack mostly of arbitrary political interventionism. On a larger plane, the economic policy framework is now avowedly market-based and opposed to any form of strategic intervention. Weaving social objectives into economic policies is frowned upon. The agenda of economic reform does not include social interventions like the NAC's employment guarantee scheme and so on.

Policy initiatives by the administration have put the resource-rich East Godavari district on the road to all-round development.