The government is likely to increase the plan allocation for government schemes by 15 per cent to Rs 3.73 lakh crore during 2010-11. Finance minister Pranab Mukherjee and Planning Commission deputy chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia today held discussions on plan allocations amid demand for higher support from various ministries. Sources in the North Block said the finance ministry could agree to allocate a modest Rs 3.73 lakh crore of the gross budgetary...

The Planning Commission, the country’s apex planning body, is gradually reconciling to the fact that there would be no large gains in the gross budgetary support (GBS) in budget 2010-11, as the government struggles to reduce fiscal deficit. GBS is the money the Union government allocates to various government programmes through the Union budget. “The major objective of the finance ministry is to bring down the fiscal deficit from 6.8% of...

A Planning Commission evaluation of the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) has questioned the effectiveness of projects implemented under the Act in boosting productivity and creating assets. NREGA, the Union government’s flagship anti-poverty programme that promises 100 days of employment every year to the rural poor, is partly credited with driving the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) to victory in the April-May general election. In a presentation made at Prime Minister...

Seven months into its second innings in power, UPA-2’s report card on key target schemes is just about average. Initiatives like Rajiv Awas Yojana are yet to be fully formulated while some others like the western dedicated rail corridor are stalled and a few other schemes are suffering from end-user glitches. A year-end review of Flagship Programmes, now scanned by PMO’s delivery monitoring unit apart from Cabinet Secretariat, has highlighted...

The Delivery Monitoring Unit set up by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in the Prime Minister’s Office to monitor the government’s Flagship Programmes, initiatives and projects has sent babus in a tizzy trying to comply with the tough timelines set by T.K.A. Nair, the Prime Minister’s principal secretary who heads this unit. Naturally, most of the action is in ministries handling "flagship" programmes. Among the ministries which have already posted updates...