-Outlook The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) today approved a urea investment policy that is likely to incentivise fertiliser firms setting up new plants and expanding existing capacity. India imports over 30 per cent of urea requirement and the policy aims at reducing that. But, it is unlikely to have any impact on existing prices. "The new urea investment policy has been cleared," sources said after the CCEA meeting here. The policy, which...

-The Business Standard Govt pushes biofuels again, despite bitter experience The nearly decade-old programme to promote ethanol-blended petrol has failed to make much headway despite continued attempts by the government to get it going. The latest such attempt was last week, when the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) made the very poor decision to force oil marketing companies to mix five per cent ethanol with petrol throughout the country from...

-Outlook Mandatory mixing of five per cent ethanol in petrol will be implemented across the country from next month, Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs decided today, a step which will help the country save around 100 crore litres of fuel every year. In 2009, the CCEA had decided to mix five per cent ethanol in petrol but it could not be implemented due to opposition by some sections in the chemical and...

-PTI The government has surplus stocks in view of record production last year Food Corporation of India today said it will sell immediately 3 million tonnes of wheat to bulk consumers in open market in an effort to bring down prices. Last week, the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) had approved sale of 6.5 million tonnes of wheat under open market sale scheme (OMSS) through the tender process. "Out of 6.5 million tonnes...

-Live Mint All file notings can be made public now except those explicitly exempted  The Union cabinet on Thursday decided to withdraw controversial draft amendments to the Right to Information (RTI) Act that sought to restrict disclosure of government file notings. The move allayed the concerns of rights activists. The draft amendments would have restricted disclosure of file notings only to social and developmental issues. The government had to drop the move following...