Highest priority to social services sector

The Planning Commission today approved a Rs 27,072-crore Annual Plan for Haryana. The outlay includes Rs 7,513 crore for state public sector enterprises (PSEs) and Rs 1,559 crore for local bodies to be met from their own resources. The net State Plan outlay, excluding the PSEs and local bodies, comes to Rs 18,000 crore, an increase of 24 per cent over last year’s Rs. 14,500 crore.

Slum-dwellers in cities will now be able to avail health facilities

Urban poor, especially those living in slums, will now have access to primary healthcare services in cities and towns with the Cabinet recently approving the National Urban Health Mission (NUHM) to function as a sub-mission under the overarching National Health Mission which also caters to rural populations.
To be implemented in 779 cities and towns with over 50,000 population, the NUHM aims to cover 7.75 crore people. Meant for the urban poor, it will primarily target the urban slum population of 68 million (6 crore) as revealed by the 2011 Census.

The drastic fall in private investment in road and highway projects has prompted Parliament’s standing committee on transport to suggest a review of the Public Private Partnership (PPP) model – touted by many senior government officials as the only way to bring in money and developing infrastructure in India.

In 2012-13, only 9 projects offered by the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) got bids whereas as many as 13 projects saw no takers.
The Parliamentary Standing Committee on transportation, tourism and culture in its report on the demand for grants by the road ministry said that with private capital gravitating towards only profitable projects, unprofitable projects getting no bids must be developed using budgetary support instead.

At the meeting to be held between the Assam Government and the Planning Commission on May 7, the State Government will seek Rs 16,050 crore as Plan allocation for the fiscal 2013–14.

Planning Commission of India (PCI) has fixed the annual plan size for Arunachal Pradesh for the current financial year at Rs 3,700 crore which includes Rs 3,177 crore of central assistance.

Form strategy to reduce water use, Montek Singh Ahluwalia tells Chief Minister

The Annual Plan for 2013-14 for Punjab has been finalised at Rs 16,125 crore, a jump of 15 per cent over last year. The Plan size was finalised at a meeting between the Deputy Chairman, Planning Commission, Montek Singh Ahluwalia, and Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal here today.

The annual plan size for the State of Arunachal Pradesh for 2013–14 has been fixed at Rs. 3,700 Cr which includes Rs. 3,177 Cr of Central Assistance.

Draft of shale gas policy has been sent for inter-ministerial consultation-to ministry of finance, environment, law & planning commission. As the government is trying to finalise a shale gas policy, it wants to build in environmental safeguards into the overall framework.

The ministry of petroleum and natural gas is engaged in extensive consultations with the environment ministry to ensure that once the actual work starts there are no glitches. According to an official close to the development, the draft of shale gas policy has been sent for inter-ministerial consultation—to the ministry of finance, environment, law and planning commission.

"Climate change is projected to reduce timely sown irrigated wheat production by about 6% in 2020. In case of late sown wheat, the projected levels are to the extent of 18%," Pawar said in the Rajya Sabha.

Climate change is likely to bring down the production of key foodgrain crops like wheat and rice in the country by up to 18% in 2020, Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar said today.

The Planning Commission on Thursday approved a Plan outlay of Rs 3,650 crore for Manipur for 2013-14, an increase of 4.3 per cent from the previous fiscal.

In 2012-13, the state government had received a Plan size of Rs 3,500 crore. The plan size was finalised here in a meeting between Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission Montek Singh Ahluwalia and Chief Minister of Manipur Okram Ibobi Singh.